!*ugM l ig!i 



SKY 



THE LAKE OF THE SKY 
LAKE TAHOE 



THE LAKE OF THE SKY 

LAKE TAHOE 

IN THE HIGH SIERRAS OF 
CALIFORNIA AND NEVADA 

ITS HISTORY, INDIANS, DISCOVERY BY FREMONT, 
LEGENDARY LORE, VARIOUS NAMINGS, PHYSICAL 
CHARACTERISTICS, GLACIAL PHENOMENA, GEOLOGY, 
SINGLE OUTLET, AUTOMOBILE ROUTES, HISTORIC 
TOWNS, EARLY MINING EXCITEMENTS, STEAMER 
RIDE, MINERAL SPRINGS, MOUNTAIN AND LAKE 
RESORTS, TRAIL AND CAMPING OUT TRIPS, SUMMER 
RESIDENCES, FISHING, HUNTING, FLOWERS, BIRDS, 
ANIMALS, TREES AND CHAPPARAL, WITH A FULL 
ACCOUNT OF THE TAHOE NATIONAL FOREST, THE 
PUBLIC USE OF THE WATER OF LAKE TAHOE AND 
MUCH OTHER INTERESTING MATTER. 

BY 

GEORGE WHARTON JAMES 

AUTHOR OF 

" In and Around the Grand Canyon," " In and Out of the Old 

Missions of California," " The Wonders of the Colorado 

Desert," " Through Ramona's Country," " The 

Indians of the Painted Desert Region," 

" California, Romantic and Beautiful," 

etc., etc. 



SECOND EDITION 

THE RADIANT LIFE PRESS 

Pasadena, California 

1921 






Copyright, 1915, 
By Edith E. Farnsworth 



All Rights Reserved 






$^ 



J. F. TAPCEY CO. 

NEW YORK 



V3 

I 

I 



TO 

ROBERT M. WATSON 
(To his friends "Bob") 

Fearless Explorer, Expert Mountaineer, 
Peerless Guide, Truthful Fisherman, 
Humane Hunter, Delightful Ra- 
conteur, True-hearted Gentle- 
man, Generous Communicator 
of a large and varied Knowl- 
edge, Brother to Man 
and Beast and Devoted 
Friend, 

AND TO ANOTHER, 

though younger brother of 
the same craft 

RICHARD MICHAELIS 

These Pages are Cordially Dedicated 

with the Author's High Esteem 

and Affectionate Regards. 




'BOB" WATSON, TAHOE GUIDE. AT HOIVTE, WITH HIS DOG, 
SKOOKUM JOHN 



INTRODUCTION 

California is proving itself more and more the wonder- 
land of the United States. Its hosts of annual visitors are 
increasing with marvelous rapidity; its population is grow- 
ing by accretions from the other states faster than any other 
section in the civilized world. The reasons are not far to 
seek. They may be summarized in five words, viz., climate, 
topography, healthfulness, productiveness and all-around 
liveableness. Its climate is already a catch word to the na- 
tions; its healthfulness is attested by the thousands who 
have come here sick and almost hopeless and who are now 
rugged, robust and happy; its productiveness is demon- 
strated by the millions of dollars its citizens annually re- 
ceive for the thousands of car-loads (one might almost say 
train-loads) of oranges, lemons, grape-fruit, walnuts, alm- 
onds, peaches, figs, apricots, onions, potatoes, asparagus and 
other fruits of its soil; and its all-around home qualities are 
best evidenced by the growth, in two or three decades, of 
scores of towns from a merely nominal population to five, 
ten, twenty, forty or fifty thousand, and of the cities of San 
Francisco, Los Angeles and Oakland to metropolises, the 
two former already claiming populations of half a million 
or thereabouts. 

As far as its topography, its scenic qualities, are con- 
cerned, the world of tourists already has rendered any 
argument upon that line unnecessary. It is already begin- 
ning to rival Switzerland, though that Alpine land has 
crowded populations within a day's journey to draw from. 

vii 



viii INTRODUCTION 

One has but to name Monterey, the Mt. Shasta region, 
Los Angeles, San Diego and Coronado, the Yosemite, Lake 
Tahoe, the Big Trees, the King and Kern River Divide, 
Mono Lake and a score of other scenic regions in Cali- 
fornia to start tongues to wagging over interesting reminis- 
cences, w^hether it be in London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid or 
Petrograd. 

Books galore are being published to make California's 
charms better knovv^n, and it has long seemed strange to 
me that no book has been published on Lake Tahoe and its 
surrounding country of mountains, forests, glacial valleys, 
lakes and canyons, for I am confident that in one or two de- 
cades from now its circle of admirers and regular visitors 
will include people from all over the civilized world, all of 
whom will declare that it is incomparable as a lake resort, 
and that its infinite variety of charm, delight and health- 
ful allurement can never adequately be told. 

Discovered by the " Pathfinder " Fremont ; described in 
the early days of California history and literature by John 
Le Conte, Mark Twain, Thomas Starr King, Ben C. Tru- 
man, and later by John Vance Cheney and others; for 
countless centuries the fishing haunt of the peaceable Ne- 
vada Washoes, who first called it Tahoe — High or Clear 
Water — and of the California Monos; the home of 
many of their interesting legends and folk-lore tales; occa- 
sionally the scene of fierce conflicts between the defending 
Indians and those who would drive them away, it early be- 
came the object of the jealous and inconsequent squabbling 
of politicians. Its discoverer had named it Mountain Lake, 
or Lake Bonpland, the latter name after the traveling and 
exploring companion of Baron von Humboldt, whose name 
is retained in the Humboldt River of Nevada, but when the 
first reasonably accurate survey of its shores was made, John 
Bigler was the occupant of the gubernatorial chair of the 



INTRODUCTION ix 

State of California and it was named after him. Then, 
later, for purely political reasons, it was changed to Tahoe, 
and finally back to Bigler, which name it still officially re- 
tains, though of the thousands who visit it annually but a 
very small proportion have ever heard that such a name 
was applied to it. 

In turn, soon after its discovery, Tahoe became the scene 
of a mining excitement that failed to " pan out," the home 
of vast logging and lumber operations and the objective 
point to which several famous " Knights of the Lash " drove 
world-noted men and women in swinging Concord coaches. 
In summer it is the haunt of Nature's most dainty, glorious, 
and alluring picturesqueness ; in winter the abode, during 
some days, of the Storm King with his cohorts of hosts of 
clouds, filled with rain, hail, sleet and snow, of fierce winds, 
of dread lightnings, of majestic displays of rudest power. 
Suddenly, after having covered peak and slope, meadow and 
shore, with snow to a depth of six, eight, ten or more feet, 
the Storm King retires and Solus again reigns supreme. 
And then ! ah, then is the time to see Lake Tahoe and its 
surrounding country. The placid summer views are ex- 
quisite and soul-stirring, but what of Tahoe now? The 
days and nights are free from wind and frost, the sun tem- 
pers the cold and every hour is an exhilaration. The Ameri- 
can people have not yet learned, as have the Europeans in 
the Alps, the marvelous delights and stimulations of the 
winter in such a place as Lake Tahoe. But they will learn 
in time, and though a prophet is generally without honor 
in his own country, I will assume a role not altogether 
foreign, and venture the assertion that I shall live to see 
the day when winter visitors to Lake Tahoe will number 
more than those who will visit it throughout the whole of 
the year (1914) in which I write. One of the surprises 
often expressed by those I have met here who have wintered 



X INTRODUCTION 

in the Alps is that no provision is made for hotel accommo- 
dation during the winter at Lake Tahoe. 

To return, however, to the charms of Tahoe that are 
already known to many thousands. Within the last two or 
three decades it has become the increasingly popular Mecca 
of the hunter, sportsman, and fisherman; the natural haunt 
of the thoughtful and studious lover of God's great and 
varied out-of-doors, and, since fashionable hotels were 
built, the chosen resort of many thousands of the wealthy, 
pleasure-loving and Ixoxurious. What wonder that there 
should be a growing desire on the part of the citizens of 
the United States — and especially of California and Ne- 
vada — together with well-informed travelers from all 
parts of the world, for larger knowledge and fuller infor- 
mation about Lake Tahoe than has hitherto been available. 

To meet this laudable desire has been my chief incite- 
ment in the preparation of the following pages, but I 
should be untrue to my own devotion to Lake Tahoe, which 
has extended over a period of more than thirty years, were I 
to ignore the influence the Lake's beauty has had over me, 
and the urge it has placed within me. Realizing and feel- 
ing these emotions I have constantly asked with Edward 
Rowland Sill: 

What can I for such a world give back again? 

And my only answer has been, and is, this: 

Could I only hint the beauty — 
Some least shadow of the beauty, 
Unto men! 

In looking over the files of more or less ephemeral litera- 
ture, as well as the records of the explorations of early 
days, I have been astonished at the rich treasures of scien- 
tific and descriptive literature that have Lake Tahoe as their 
object. Not the least service this unpretentious volume 



INTRODUCTION xi 

will accomplish is the gathering together of these little- 
known jewels. 

It will be noticed that I have used the word Sierran rather 
than Alpine throughout these pages. Why not? Why 
should the writer, describing the majestic, the glorious, the 
sublime of the later-formed mountain ranges of earth, 
designate them by a term coined for another and far-away 
range ? 

I would have the reader, however, be careful to pro- 
nounce it accurately. It is not Sy-eer-an, but See-ehr-ran, 
almost as if one were advising another to " See Aaron," the 
brother of Moses. 

Tahoe is not Teh-e, nor is it Tah-ho, nor Tah-o. The 
Washoe Indians, from whom we get the name, pronounce 
it as if it were one syllable Tao, like a Chinese name, the 
*' a " having the broad sound ah of the Continent. 

Likewise Tallac is not pronounced with the accent on 
the last syllable (as is generally heard), but Taf-ac. 

While these niceties of pronunciation are not of vast im- 
portance, they preserve to us the intonations of the original 
inhabitants, who, as far as we know, were the first human 
beings to gaze upon the face of this ever-glorious and beau- 
tiful Lake. 

When Mark Twain and Thomas Starr King visited 
Tahoe it was largely in its primitive wildness, though log- 
ging operations for the securing of timber for the mines of 
Virginia City had been going on for some time and had 
led to the settlement at Glenbrook (where four great saw 
mills were in constant operation so long as weather per- 
mitted), and the stage- road from Placerville to Virginia 
City demanded stopping-stations, as Myers, Yanks, Row- 
lands and Lakeside. 

But to-day, while the commercial operations have largely 
ceased, the scenic attractions of Lake Tahoe and its region 



xii INTRODUCTION 

have justified the erection of over twenty resorts and 
camps, at least two of them rivaling in extent and elaborate- 
ness of plant any of the gigantic resort hotels of either the 
Atlantic or Pacific coasts, the others varying in size and 
degree, according to the class of patronage they seek. That 
these provisions for the entertainment of travelers, yearly 
visitors, and health seekers will speedily increase with the 
years there can be no doubt, for there is but one Lake 
Tahoe, and its lovers will ultimately be legion. Already, 
also, it has begun to assert itself as a place of summer resi- 
dence. Fifteen years ago private residences on Lake Tahoe 
might have been enumerated on the fingers of the two 
hands; now they number as many hundreds, and the sound 
of the hammer and saw is constantly heard, and dainty 
villas, bungalows, cottages, and rustic homes are springing 
up as if by magic. 

Then Lake Tahoe was comparatively hard to reach. 
Now, the trains of the Southern Pacific and the Lake Tahoe 
Railway and Transportation Company deposit one on the 
very edge of the Lake easier and with less personal exer- 
tion than is required to go to and from any large metropoli- 
tan hotel in one city to a similar hotel in another city. 

It is almost inevitable that in such a book as this there 
should be some repetition. Just as one sees the same peaks 
and lakes, shore-line and trees from different portions of 
the Lake — though, of course, at slightly or widely differing 
angles — so in writing, the attention of the reader naturally 
is called again and again to the same scenes. But this book 
is written not so much with an eye to its literary quality, 
as to afford the visitor to Lake Tahoe — whether contem- 
plative, actual, or retrospective — a truthful and compre- 
hensive account and description of the Lake and its sur- 
roundings. 

It will be observed that in many places I have capitalized 



INTRODUCTION xiu 

the common noun Lake. Whenever this appears it signi- 
fies Lake Tahoe — the chief of all the lakes of the Sierras. 

While it is very delightful to sit on the veranda or in 
the sw^inging seats of the Tavern law^n, or at the choice 
nooks of all the resorts from Tahoe City completely around 
the Lake, it is not possible to w^rite a book on Lake Tahoe 
there. One must get out and feel the bigness of it all; 
climb its mountains, follow its trout streams; ride or walk 
or push one's way through its leafy coverts; dwell in the 
shade of its forests; row over its myriad of lakes; study its 
geology, before he can know or write about Tahoe. 

This is what I have done. 

And this is what I desire to urge most earnestly upon 
my reader. Don't lounge around the hotels all the time. 
Get all you want of that kind of recreation ; then " go in " 
for the more strenuous fun of wandering and climbing. Go 
alone or in company, afoot or horseback, only go! Thus 
will Tahoe increase the number of its devoted visitants and 
my object in writing these pages be accomplished. 




^r:f:^ 



Tahoe Tavern, June 1914. 



ANGORA PEAK 



FALL] 




CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 



T 1 . PAGE 

Introduction . 



Vll 



I Why " the Lake of the Sky " ? . . 1-12 

II Fremont and the Discovery of Lake 

Tahoe 13-25 

III The Indians of Lake Tahoe . . . 26-38 

IV Indian Legends of the Tahoe Region 39-55 
V The Various Names of Lake Tahoe . 56-62 

VI John Le Conte's Physical Studies of 

Lake Tahoe 63—77 

VII How Lake Tahoe Was Formed . . 78-81 
VIII The Glacial History of Lake Tahoe 82-101 
IX The Lesser Lakes of the Tahoe Re- 
gion and How They Were 
Formed . . . , . . 102-105 
X Donner Lake and Its Tragic His- 
tory 106-110 

XI Lake Tahoe and the Truckee River . 111-115 
XII By Rail to Lake Tahoe .... 1 16-120 

XIII The Wishbone Automobile Route to 

and Around Lake Tahoe . 1 21-142 

XIV Tahoe Tavern 143-152 

XV Trail Trips in the Tahoe Region , 153-184 

To Watson's Peak and Lake . . 154 



AN(;()KA I'KAK 



(;len alpine 



MT. TAI.I.AC 



KLT.ICOX l-KAKS 



FALLEN LEAF LAKE 



LAK1-: r A1I01-: 




rAN'tlUANL\ IKOM SOL TU EM) 1 AEI.EX LEAF LAKE 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 



XVI 



XVII 

XVIII 

XIX 

XX 

XXI 

XXII 

XXIII 

XXIV 

XXV 

XXVI 

XXVII 

XXVIII 

XXIX 

XXX 

XXXI 

XXXII 

XXXIII 



To Squaw Valley, Granite Chief 
Peak, Five Lakes and Deer 

Park Springs 165 

To Ellis Peak 178 

Camping Out Trips in the Tahoe Re- 
gion 185-198 

To Hell Hole and the Rubicon 

River 188 

Historic Tahoe ToM^ns .... 199-204 
By Steamer Around Lake Tahoe . 205-213 

Deer Park Springs 214-217 

Rubicon Springs 218-221 

Emerald Bay and Camp .... 222-229 

Al-Tahoe 230-231 

Glen Alpine Springs 232-239 

Fallen Leaf Lake and Its Resorts . 240-250 

Lakeside Park 251-254 

Glenbrook and Marlette Lake . . 255-261 
Carnelian Bay and Tahoe Country 

Club 262-265 

Fishing in the Lakes of the Tahoe 

Region 266-276 

Hunting at Lake Tahoe . . . 277 

The Flowers of the Tahoe Region . 278-284 
The Chaparral of the Tahoe Region 285—289 
How to Distinguish the Trees of the 

Tahoe Region .... 290-300 

The Birds and Animals of the Tahoe 

Region 301-313 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXXIV The Squaw Valley Mining Excite- 
ment 314-319 

XXXV The Fremont Howitzer and Lake 

Tahoe 320-326 

XXXVI The Mount Rose Observatory . . 327-331 

XXXVII Lake Tahoe in Winter .... 332-337 

Written by Dr. J. E. Church, Jr., Vniversity of Nevada. 

XXXVIII Lake Tahoe as a Summer Residence . 338-340 

XXXIX The Tahoe National Forest . . . 341-352 
XL Public Use of the Waters of Lake 

Tahoe 353-358 



APPENDIX 

A Mark Twain at Lake Tahoe . . 359-362 

B Mark Twain and the Forest Rangers 363-365 

C Thomas Starr King at Lake Tahoe . 366-372 

D Joseph LeConte at Lake Tahoe . . 373-376 

E John Vance Cheney at Lake Tahoe . 377-380 

F The Resorts of Lake Tahoe . . .381-386 



THE LAKE OF THE SKY 
LAKE TAHOE 

CHAPTER I 

WHY "the lake of THE SKY " ? 

LAKE TAHOE is the largest lake at its altitude — 
twenty-three miles long by thirteen broad, 6225 
feet above the level of the sea — with but one ex- 
ception in the world. Then, too, it closely resembles the 
sky in its pure and perfect color. One often experiences, 
on looking down upon it from one of its many surround- 
ing mountains, a feeling of surprise, as If the sky and earth 
had somehow been reversed and he was looking down upon 
the sky instead of the earth. 

And, further. Lake Tahoe so exquisitely mirrors the 
purity of the sky; its general atmosphere is so perfect, that 
one feels it is peculiarly akin to the sky, 

Mark Twain walked to Lake Tahoe in the early sixties, 
from Carson City, carrying a couple of blankets and an ax. 
He suggests that his readers will find it advantageous to go 
on horseback. It was a hot summer day, not calculated to 
make one of his temperament susceptible to fine scenic im- 
pressions, yet this is what he says: 

We plodded on, two or three hours longer, and at last 
the Lake burst upon us — a noble sheet of blue water lifted 
six thousand three hundred feet above the level of the sea, 



2 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

and walled in by a rim of snow-clad mountain peaks that 
towered aloft full three thousand feet higher still. It was a 
vast oval, and one would have to use up eighty or a hundred 
good miles in traveling around it. As it lay there with the 
shadows of the mountains brilliantly photographed upon its 
still surface I thought it must surely be the fairest picture 
the whole earth affords! 

And there you have it! Articulate or inarticulate, some- 
thing like this is what every one thinks when he first sees 
Tahoe, and the oftener he sees it, and the more he knows it 
the more grand and glorious it becomes. It is immaterial 
that there are lakes perched upon higher mountain shelves, 
and that one or two of them, at equal or superior altitudes, 
are larger in size. Tahoe ranks in the forefront both for 
altitude and size, and in beauty and picturesqueness, majesty 
and sublimity, there is no mountain body of water on this 
earth that is its equal. 

Why such superlatives in which world-travelers generally 
— in fact, invariably — agree ? There must be some reason 
for it. Nay, there are many. To thousands the chief charm 
of Lake Tahoe is in the exquisite, rare, and astonishing 
colors of its waters. They are an endless source of delight 
to all who see them, no matter how insensible they may be, 
ordinarily, to the effect of color. There is no shade of 
blue or green that cannot here be found and the absolutely 
clear and pellucid quality of the water enhances the beauty 
and perfection of the tone. 

One minister of San Francisco thus speaks of the color- 
ing: 

When the day is calm there is a ring around the Lake ex- 
tending from a hundred yards to a mile from the shore 
which is the most brilliant green; within this ring there is 
another zone of the deepest blue, and this gives place to royal 
purple in the distance; and the color of the Lake changes 
from day to day and from hour to hour. It is never twice 



WHY "THE LAKE OF THE SKY"? 3 

the same — sometimes the blue is lapis lazuli, then it is 
jade, then it is purple, and when the breeze gently ruffles the 
surface it is silvery-gray. The Lake has as many moods 
as an April day or a lovely woman. But its normal ap- 
pearance is that of a floor of lapis lazuli set with a ring of 
emerald. 

The depth of the water, varying as it does from a few 
feet to nearly or over 2000 feet, together with the peculiarly 
variable bottom of the Lake, have much to do with these color 
effects. The lake bottom on a clear wind-quiet day can be 
clearly seen except in the lowest depths. Here and there 
are patches of fairly level area, covered either with rocky 
bowlders, moss-covered rocks, or vari-colored sands. Then, 
suddenly, the eye falls upon a ledge, on the yonder side of 
which the water suddenly becomes deep blue. That ledge 
may denote a submarine precipice, a hundred, five hundred, 
a thousand or more feet deep, and the changes caused by 
such sudden and awful depths are beyond verbal descrip- 
tion. 

Many of the softer color-effects are produced by the light 
colored sands that are washed down into the shallower 
waters by the mountain streams. These vary considerably, 
from almost white and cream, to deep yellow, brown and 
red. Then the mosses that grow on the massive bowlders, 
rounded, square and irregular, of every conceivable size, 
that are strewn over the lake bottom, together with the 
equally varied rocks of the shore-line, some of them tower- 
ing hundreds of feet above the water — these have their 
share in the general enchantment and revelry of color. 

Emerald Bay and Meek's Bay are justly world-famed 
for their triumphs of color glories, for here there seem to be 
those peculiar combinations of varied objects, and depths, 
from the shallowest to the deepest, with the variations of 
colored sands and rocks on the bottom, as well as queer- 



4 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

shaped and colored bowlders lying on the vari-colored sands, 
that are not found elsewhere. The waving of the water 
gives a mottled effect surpassing the most delicate and richly- 
shaded marbles and onyxes. Watered-silks of the most 
perfect manufacture are but childish and puerile attempts 
at reproduction, and finest Turkish shawls, Bokhara rugs 
or Arab sheiks' dearest-prized Prayer Carpets are but glim- 
mering suggestions of what the Master Artist himself has 
here produced. 

There are not the glowing colors of sunrises and sunsets; 
but they are equally sublime, awe-inspiring and enchanting. 
There are Alpine-glows, and peach-blooms and opalescent 
fires, gleams and subtle suggestions that thrill moment by 
moment, and disappear as soon as seen, only to be followed 
by equally beautiful, enchanting and surprising effects, and 
with it all, is a mobility, a fluidity, a rippling, flowing, wav- 
ing, tossing series of effects that belong only to enchanted 
water — water kissed into glory by the sun and moon, lured 
into softest beauty by the glamour of the stars, and etheri- 
alized by the quiet and subtle charms of the Milky Way, and 
of the Suns, Comets and Meteors that the eye of man has 
never gazed upon. 

There is one especially color-blessed spot. It is in Gre- 
cian Bay, between Rubicon Point and Emerald Bay. Here 
the shore formation is wild and irregular, with deep holes, 
majestic, grand and rugged rocks and some trees and shrub- 
bery. Near the center of this is a deep hole, into which one 
of the mountain streams runs over a light-colored sandy bot- 
tom where the water is quite shallow. Around are vari- 
colored trees and shrubs, and these objects and conditions all 
combine to produce a mystic revelation of color gradations 
and harmonies, from emerald green and jade to the deepest 
amythestine or ultra-marine. When the wind slightly stirs 



WHY "THE LAKE OF THE SKY"? 5 

the surface and these dancing ripples catch the sunbeams, one 
by one, in changeful and irregular measure, the eyes are 
dazzled with iridescences and living color-changes cover- 
ing hundreds of acres, thousands of them, as exquisite, glori- 
ous and dazzling as revealed in the most perfect peacock's 
tail-feathers, or humming-bird's throat. Over such spots 
one sits in his boat spell-bound, color-entranced, and the 
ears of his soul listen to color music as thrilling, as enchant- 
ing as melodies by Foster and Balfe, minuets by Mozart and 
Haydn, arias by Handel, nocturnes and serenades by Chopin 
and Schumann, overtures by Rossini, massive choruses and 
chorals by Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn, fugues by 
Bach, and concertos by Beethoven. 

The blue alone is enough to impress it forever upon the 
observant mind. Its rich, deep, perfect splendor is a con- 
stant surprise. One steps from his hotel, not thinking of the 
Lake — the blue of it rises through the trees, over the rocks, 
everywhere, with startling vividness. Surely never before 
was so large and wonderful a lake of inky blue, sapphire 
blue, ultra-marine, amethystine richness spread out for 
man's enjoyment. And while the summer months show this 
in all its smooth placidity and quietude, there seems to be 
a deeper blue, a richer shade take possession of the waves 
in the fall, or when its smoothness is rudely dispelled by 
the storms of winter and spring. 

So much for the color! 

Yet there are those who are devoted to Lake Tahoe who 
seldom speak of the coloring of its waters. Perhaps they 
are fascinated by its fishing. This has become as world- 
famed as its colors. Thousands, hundreds of thousands, of 
the most gamey and delicately-flavored trout are caught 
here annually, both by experts and amateurs. The Federal 
and State governments, and private individuals yearly stock 



6 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

the main Lake and the hundred and one smaller lakes of the 
region with the finest species of trout obtainable, and the 
results fully justify the labor and expense. 

To the mountain-lover the Tahoe region Is an earthly 
paradise. One summer I climbed over twenty peaks, each 
over nine thousand feet high, and all gave me glimpses of 
Tahoe. Some of them went up close to ii,ooo feet. 

Are you an admirer of Alpine, nay. High Sierran, trees? 
You will find all the well-known, and several rare and en- 
tirely new species in this region. This field alone could well 
occupy a student, or a mere amateur tree-lover a whole sum- 
mer in rambling, climbing, collecting and studying. 

And as for geology — the Grand Canyon of Arizona has 
afforded me nature reading material for nearly three de- 
cades and I am delighted by reading it yet. Still I am 
free to confess the uplift of these high-sweeping Sierras, upon 
whose lofty summits 

The high-born, beautiful snow comes down, 
Silent and soft as the terrible feet 
Of Time on the mosses of ruins; 

the great glacial cirques, with their stupendous precipices 
from which the vast ice-sheets started, which gouged, 
smoothed, planed and grooved millions of acres of solid 
granite into lake-beds, polished domes and canyon walls and 
carried along millions of tons of rock debris to make scores 
of lateral and terminal moraines ; together with the evidences 
of uplift, subsidence and volcanic outpouring of diorite and 
other molten rocks, afford one as vast and enjoyable a field 
for contemplation as any ordinary man can find in the Grand 
Canyon. 

But why compare them? There is no need to do so. 
Each is supreme in its own right; different yet compelling, 
unlike yet equally engaging. 



WHY "THE LAKE OF THE SKY"? 7 

Then there are the ineffable climate of summer, the sun- 
rises, the sunsets, the Indians, the flowers, the sweet-singing 
birds, the rowing, in wunter the snow-shoeing, the camping- 
out, and, alas ! I must say it — the hunting. 

Why man will hunt save for food is beyond me. I deem 
it that every living thing has as much right to its life as I 
have to mine, but I find I am in a large minority among a 
certain class that finds at Lake Tahoe its hunting Mecca. 
Deer abound, and grouse and quail are quite common, 
and in the summer of 191 3 I knew of four bears being 
shot. 

Is it necessary to present further claims for Lake Tahoe? 
Every new hour finds a new charm, every new day calls for 
the louder praise, every added visit only fastens the chains 
of allurement deeper. For instance, this is the day of ath- 
letic maids, as well as men. We find them everywhere. 
Very well! Lake Tahoe is the physical culturist's heaven. 

In any one of its score of camps he may sleep out of doors, 
on the porch, out under the pines, by the side of the Lake or 
in his tent or cottage with open doors and windows. At 
sunrise, or later, in his bathing suit, or when away from 
too close neighbors, clothed, as dear old Walt Whitman 
puts it, " in the natural and religious idea of nakedness," 
the cold waters of the Lake invite him to a healthful and 
invigorating plunge, with a stimulating and vivifying swim. 
A swift rub down with a crash towel, a rapid donning of 
rude walking togs and off, instanter, for a mile climb up 
one of the trails, a scramble over a rocky way to some hid- 
den Sierran lake, some sheltered tree nook, some elevated out- 
look point, and, after feasting the eyes on the glories of in- 
comparable and soul-elevating scenes, he returns to camp, 
eats a hearty breakfast, with a clear conscience, a vigorous 
appetite aided by hunger sauce, guided by the normal in- 
stincts of taste, all of which have been toned up by the morn- 



8 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

ing's exercise — what wonder that such an one radiates Life 
and Vim, Energy and Health, Joy and Content. 

Do you know what the lure must be when a busy man, an 
active man, an alert man, a man saturated with the nervous 
spirit of American commercial life, sits down in one of the 
seats overlooking the Lake, or spreads out his full length 
upon the grass, or on the beds of Sierran moss, which make 
a deliciously restful cushion, and stays there! He does 
nothing; doesn't even look consciously at the blue waters of 
the Lake, on the ineffable blue of the sky, or the rich green 
of the trees or the glory of the flowers — he simply sits or 
sprawls or lies and, though the influence is different, the ef- 
fect is the same as that expressed in the old hymn: 

My soul would ever stay, 
In such a frame as this. 
And sit and sing itself away, 
To everlasting bliss. 

There's the idea! Calm, rest, peace, bliss. Those are 
what you get at Lake Tahoe. And with them come re- 
newed health, increased vigor, strengthened courage, new 
power to go forth and seize the problems of life, with a 
surer grasp, a more certain touch, a more clearly and defi- 
nitely assured end. 

There are some peculiarities of Lake Tahoe that should 
be noted, although they are of a very different character from 
the foolish and sensational statements that used to be made 
in the early days of its history among white men. A serious 
advertising folder years ago sagely informed the traveling 
public as follows: "A strange phenomenon in connection 
with the Tnickee River is the fact that the Lake from which 
it flows (Tahoe) has no inlet, so far as any one knows, and 
the lake into which it flows (Pyramid Lake, Nevada), has 
no outlet." 

How utterly absurd this is. Lake Tahoe has upward of 



WHY "THE LAKE OF THE SKY"? 9 

a hundred feeders, among which may be named Glenbrook, 
the Upper Truckee, Fallen Leaf Creek, Eagle Creek, Meek's 
Creek, General Creek, McKinney Creek, Madden Creek, 
Blackwood Creek, and Ward Creek, all of these being con- 
stant streams, pouring many thousands of inches of water 
daily into the Lake even at the lowest flow, and in the 
snow-melting and rainy seasons sending down their floods 
in great abundance. 

To many it is a singular fact that Lake Tahoe never 
freezes over in winter. This is owing to its great depth, 
possibly aided by the ruffling and consequent disturbance of 
its surface by the strong northeasterly winter winds. The 
vast body of water, with such tremendous depth, maintains 
too high a temperature to be affected by surface reductions 
in temperature. Experiments show that the temperature 
in summer on the surface is 68 degrees Fahr. At lOO feet 
55 degrees; at 300 feet 46 degrees; at 1506 feet 39 degrees. 

Twenty years ago the thermometer at Lake Tahoe regis- 
tered 18° F. below zero, and in 1 9 10 it was 10° F. below. 
Both these years Emerald Bay froze over. Perhaps the 
reason for this is found in the fact that the entrance to the 
bay is very shallow, and that this meager depth is subject 
to change in surface temperature, becoming warmer in sum- 
mer and colder in winter. This narrow ridge once solidly 
frozen, the warmth of the larger body of water would have 
no effect upon the now-confined smaller body of Emerald 
Bay. Once a firm hold taken by the ice, it would slowly 
spread its fingers and aid in the reduction of the tempera- 
ture beyond, first producing slush-ice, and then the more 
solid crystal ice, until the whole surface would be frozen solid. 

An explanation of the non-freezing of the main Lake has 
been offered by several local " authorities " as owing to the 
presence of a number of hot springs either in the bed of 
the Lake or near enough to its shores materially to affect its 



lo THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

temperature. But I know of few or no " facts " to justify 
such an explanation. 

When I first visited Lake Tahoe over thirty years ago I 
was seriously and solemnly informed by several (who evi- 
dently believed their own assertions) that, owing to the 
great elevation, of the Lake, the density of the water, etc., 
etc., it was impossible for any one to swim in Lake Tahoe. 
I was assured that several who had tried had had narrow 
escapes from drowning. While the utter absurdity of the 
statements was self-evident I decided I would give myself 
a practical demonstration. To be perfectly safe I purchased 
a clothes-line, then, hiring a row-boat, went as far away from 
shore as was desirable, undressed, tied one end of the rope 
around the seat, the other around my body, and — jumped 
in. I did not sink. Far from it. I was never more stimu- 
lated to swim in my life. My ten or fifteen feet dive took 
me into colder water than I had ever experienced before 
and I felt as if suddenly, and at one fell swoop, I were flayed 
alive. Gasping for breath I made for the boat, climbed in, 
and in the delicious glow that came with the reaction decided 
that it was quite as important to feel of the temperature of 
lake water before you leaped, as it was to render yourself 
safe from sinking by anchoring yourself to a clothesline. 

But I would not have my reader assume from the recital 
of this experience that Lake Tahoe is always too cold for 
swimming. Such is not the case. Indeed in June, July, 
August and September the swimming is delightful to those 
who enjoy " the cool, silver shock of the plunge in a pool's 
living water," that Browning's Saul so vividly pictures for 
us. Hundreds of people — men, women and children — in 
these months indulge in the daily luxury, especially in the 
coves and beaches where the water is not too deep, and the 
sun's ardent rays woo them into comfortable warmth. 

After a warm day's tramp or ride over the trails, too, there 



WHY "THE LAKE OF THE SKY"? ii 

is nothing more delicious than a plunge into one of the 
lakes. A short, crisp swim, a vigorous rub down, and a 
resumption of the walk or ride and one feels fit enough to 
conquer a world. 

It can be imagined, too, what a lively scene the Lake pre- 
sents in the height of the season, when, from the scores of 
hotels, resorts, camps, private residences, fishermen's camps, 
etc.; fishing-boats, row-boats, launches, motor-boats, and 
yachts ply to and fro in every direction, unconsciously vying 
with each other to attract the eye of the onlooker. The pure 
blue of the Lake, with its emerald ring and varying shades 
of color, added to by the iridescent gleam that possesses 
the surface when it is slightly rippled by a gentle breeze, 
contrasting with the active, vivid, moving boats of differing 
sizes, splashed with every conceivable color by the hats and 
costumes of the occupants — all these conspire to demand 
the eye, to enchain the attention, to harmlessly hypnotize, as 
it were, those who sit on the shore and look. 

And when is added to this the spontaneous shouts and 
shrieks of delight that the feminine " fishermen " give when 
they are successful and make a catch, the half-frenzied and 
altogether delighted announcements thereof, the whole- 
hearted or the half-jealous, half-envious return-congratula- 
tions, while now and then the large steamer, Tahoe, or an 
elegant private yacht, as the Tevis's Consuelo, crosses the 
scene, one may partially but never fully conceive the joy 
and radiant happiness, the satisfaction and content that Lake 
Tahoe inspires and produces. 

Lake Tahoe covers about 190 square miles, and its 
watershed is about 500 square miles. The boundary line 
between Nevada and California strikes the Lake on the 
northern border at the 120th meridian, and a point at that 
spot is called the State Line Point. The latitude parallel 
of this northern entrance is 39° 15". The boundary line 



12 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

goes due south until about 38° 58" and then strikes off at an 
oblique angle to the southeast, making the southern line 
close to Lakeside Park, a few miles east of the 120th me- 
ridian. 



CHAPTER II 

FREMONT AND THE DISCOVERY OF LAKE TAHOE 

LIKE so many other great discoveries that were to have 
an important effect upon the lives of countless num- 
bers of people, the discovery of Lake Tahoe was acci- 
dental. Nor did its finder comprehend the vast influence it 
was to possess, not only upon the residents of California 
and Nevada, but upon the travel-loving and sight-seeing por- 
tion of the population of the whole world. 

John C. Fremont, popularly acclaimed " the pathfinder," 
was its discoverer, on the 14th day of February, 1844. In 
the journal of his 1843-44 expedition he thus records the 
first sight of it: 

Accompanied by Mr. Preuss, I ascended to-day the highest 
peak to the right from which we had a beautiful view of a 
mountain lake at our feet, about fifteen miles in length, and 
so nearly surrounded by mountains that we could not discover 
an outlet. 

It cannot be deemed out of place in these pages, owing 
to the significance of the discovery by Fremont, to give a 
brief account of the exploration and its purposes, in the 
carrying out of which Tahoe was revealed to the intrepid 
and distinguished explorer. 

Fortunately for us, Fremont left a full story of his ex- 
periences in the Nevada country, complete in detail, and as 
fresh and vivid as if but written yesterday. This account, 
with illuminating Introduction, and explanatory notes by 
James U. Smith, from whose pioneer father Smith Valley 

13 



14 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

is named, was republished in the Second Biennial Report of 
the Nevada Historical Society, from which, with the kind 
permission of the secretary. Professor Jeanne Elizabeth Wier, 
the following extracts are made. 

Fremont had already made his first exploration of the 
Rocky Mountains and South Pass in the summer of 1842. 
It was in this expedition that, standing on the highest peak 
of the Rockies, he looked down into the vast area beyond, 
known as the Great Basin, comprising with its mountain 
ranges the whole western portion of the continent of North 
America. This he determined to explore, and it was on 
this second expedition that Lakes Pyramid and Tahoe, the 
Truckee River, etc., were discovered. 

Later, Fremont made his third western journey, that in 
which he came into conflict with the Mexican officials of 
California, became governor of California, and was finally 
placed under arrest by General Kearny, and taken back to 
Washington to be tried for mutiny. The results of that 
unfortunate Kearny conflict are well known. 

At the official close of the dispute he made his fourth 
expedition and finally his fifth, all of which are fully treated 
in Smucker's and Bigelow's Life of Fremont. 

To return now to the second expedition. In the words 
of Mr. Smith: 

The object of the expedition was purely for the purpose 
of exploring and otherwise getting scientific information 
about the great territory between the Missouri frontier and 
the Pacific Ocean. Emigrants were making their way west- 
ward to the new Oregon Territory, and hunters and trappers 
had been visiting portions of that region. Farther north 
the fur companies had their posts and did a regular business 
with the trappers and Indians. But little was known about 
the regions further south, and especially the great territory 
between the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountain chains, 
and that little was freely adulterated with fiction. 



DISCOVERY OF LAKE TAHOE 15 

Great Salt Lake was supposed to be a very strange and 
wonderful lake, the islands of which were covered with woods 
and flowers, through which roamed all kinds of game, and 
whose waters were sucked down in a great awe-inspiring 
whirlpool into an underground passage under the mountains 
and valleys to the distant sea. Another myth, or rather pair 
of myths, in which geographers placed sufficient faith to give 
a place on the maps of the time, was the great Buenaventura 
River, and that semi-tropical Mary's Lake, the waters from 
which found their way through the Sierra Nevadas to San 
Francisco Bay. Mary's Lake was supposed to be a body of 
water such as a traveler dreams about, whose clear waters 
were bordered by meadows ever green, a place on whose shores 
he could pitch his tent and cast aside all thought or care of 
the morrow. Fremont counted on this lake as a place where 
he could recuperate and make ready for a final dash eastward 
across the unknown country to the Rocky Mountains and 
thence home to the Mississippi River. Contrast these antici- 
pations with the hardships and fears he encountered while 
groping his way through the Black Rock Desert, north of 
Pyramid Lake. 

But Fremont was a good leader followed by courageous 
men, and disappointments did not make weaklings of either 
him or his men. His party, on leaving Missouri, consisted 
of thirty-nine men — Creoles, Canadian-Frenchmen, Ameri- 
cans, a German or two, a free negro and two Indians. 
Charles Preuss was Fremont's assistant in topography, and it 
is likely that he made his sketches, several of which were 
published in the original report. Another member of the 
party, and one who joined it in the Rocky Mountains 
and is of special interest to us, was Christopher Carson, com- 
monly known as " Kit " Carson. Fremont speaks of him in 
very friendly and flattering terms. At the time of the 
meeting with Carson, he says: " I had here the satisfaction 
to meet our good buffalo hunter of 1842, Christopher Carson, 
whose services I considered myself fortunate to secure again." 
On another occasion, when Carson had successfully performed 
a responsible errand, he says: " Reaching St. Vrain's Fort 
... we found ... my true and reliable friend, Kit Car- 
son." 



i6 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 
Fremont left Kansas City, Mo., May 29, 1843. 

His general route was along the old " Oregon Trail," 
then the new " Oregon Trail," but at many places his route 
was different. He followed up the Kansas River instead 
of the Platte. But he crossed the Rocky Mountains over 
the South Pass, which is that of the Union Pacific Railroad, 
and was common to the Oregon Trail and the emigrant road 
to California. During nearly the whole journey to Oregon 
Fremont divided his party. One part he placed in charge 
of Fitzpatrick. This consisted of the carts with the bulk 
of the supplies and about half of the men. The other part 
consisted of a mounted party with packhorses and the how- 
itzer. Fremont, of course, took charge of the latter party, 
for, traveling light as it did, he was able to make detours 
covering country he wished to explore, always, however, 
using the other train as a base of supplies. The course of 
the other party was generally along the emigrant road to 
Oregon. 

After crossing the Rocky Mountains, Fremont went south 
with his party to explore Great Salt Lake. Thence he re- 
turned north again to the eniigrant road, which then followed 
in a general way the Snake or Lewis River to the Columbia, 
with the exception of the great bend in northeastern Oregon 
which was traversed by a shorter route. Along the bank of 
the Columbia the road followed to the ]\Iission Station at 
the Dalles, or great narrows of the river. At this point many 
of the emigrants transferred their baggage to barges and 
floated with the current to their destination on the Willa- 
mette River. Others continued by land down the river. 
Fremont's division reached the Dalles November 4th. Fitz- 
patrick's train did not come in until the 21st. The latter 
left his carts at the mouth of the Walla Walla River accord- 
ing to Fremont's orders; and, after making pack-saddles, 
transferred what was left of his baggage to the backs of his 
mules for the trip down to the Dalles. In the meantime 
Fremont, with Preuss and two of the other men, had gone 
down to Fort Vancouver in canoes. This was the headquar- 
ters of the Hudson Bay Company for the West. Here sup- 
plies for the return journey were obtained. 

Having transported these supplies up to the Dalles in 



DISCOVERY OF LAKE TAHOE 17 

barges propelled by Indians, he was ready to take up the 
final preparation for the homeward journey. It is best to 
let him describe these preparations in his own words. He 
says: 

" The camp was niow occupied In making the necessary 
preparations for our homeward journey, which, though home- 
ward, contemplated a new route, and a great circuit to the 
south and southeast, and the exploration of the Great Basin 
between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. 

" Three principal objects were indicated, by report, or by 
maps, as being on this route, the character or existence of 
which I wished to ascertain, and which I assumed as land- 
marks, or leading points, on the projected line of return. 
The first of these points was the Tlamath Lake, on the table- 
land between the head of Fall River (this is now called by 
its French name, the Des Chutes River), which comes to 
the Columbia, and the Sacramento, which goes to the Bay of 
San Francisco, and from which lake a river of the same name 
makes its way westwardly direct to the ocean. 

" This lake and river are often called Klamet, but I have 
chosen to write the name according to the Indian pronuncia- 
tion. The position of this lake, on the line of inland com- 
munication between Oregon and California; its proximity to 
the demarcation boundary of latitude 42 deg. ; its imputed 
double character of lake, or meadow, according to the season 
of the year; and the hostile and warlike character attributed 
to the Indians aibout it; — all make it a desirable object to 
visit and examine. From this lake our course was intended 
to be about southeast, to a reported lake called Mary's, at 
some days' journey in the Great Basin; and thence, still on 
southeast, to the reputed Buenaventura River, which has a 
place in so many maps, and countenanced the belief of the 
existence of a great river flowing from the Rocky Mountains 
to the Bay of San Francisco. From the Buenaventura the 
next point was intended to be in that section of the Rocky 
Mountains which includes the heads of Arkansas River, and 
of the opposite waters of the California Gulf; and thence 
down the Arkansas to Bent's Fort, and home. 

" This was our projected line of return — a great part of 
it absolutely new to geographical, botanical, and geological 
science — and the subject of reports in relation to lakes, 



i8 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

rivers, deserts, and savages, hardly above the condition af 
mere viald animals, which inflamed desire to know what this 
terra incognita really contained. It was a serious enterprise, 
at the commencement of winter, to undertake the traverse of 
such a region, and with a party consisting only of twenty- 
five persons, and they of many nations — American, French, 
German, Canadian, Indian, and colored — and most of them 
young, several being under twenty-one years of age. 

" All knew that a strange country was to be explored, and 
dangers and hardships to be encountered ; but no one blenched 
at the prospect. On the contrary, courage and confidence 
animated the whole party. Cheerfulness, readiness, subordi- 
nation, prompt obedience, characterized all; nor did any ex- 
tremity or peril and privation, to which we were afterward 
exposed, ever belie, or derogate from, the fine spirit of this 
brave and generous commencement. 

** The course of the narrative will show at what point, and 
for what reasons, we were prevented from the complete ex- 
ecution of this plan, after having made considerable progress 
upon it, and how we were forced by desert plains and moun- 
tain ranges, and deep snows, far to the south and near to the 
Pacific Ocean, and along the western base of the Sierra Ne- 
vada; where, indeed, a new and ample field of exploration 
opened itself before us." 

From these quotations it is evident that Fremont had no 
idea of entering California at this time. He was simply 
driven to it by circumstances over which he had no control. 

Leaving the Dalles, Fremont followed up the Des Chutes 
River to its headwaters in southeastern Oregon, thence he 
crossed over the divide to the waters of the Klamath, which 
he followed southward to what is known as Klamath 
Marsh. This he called " Klamath Lake." 

Now started the hunt for Mary's Lake and the San 
Buenaventura River. The party came down through 
southeastern Oregon into Nevada, where they camped on 
the night of December 26, in Coleman Valley, on what is 
called Twelve-Mile Creek, and about eleven miles from the 



DISCOVERY OF LAKE TAHOE 19 

present California line. It may be noted here that at that 
time the parallel between Nevada and California on the 
south and Oregon on the north, was the southern boundary 
of the territory of the United States. Fremont was, there- 
fore, about to cross into Mexican territory. 

He then progressed southward through what are now 
Washoe, Humboldt, Churchill and Lyon counties, and over 
the California line into Mono County, back again into Doug- 
las, and thence over the mountains south of Lake Tahoe, 
but did not find Mary's Lake, nor the places upon which 
he relied to recruit his animals and give rest to his party. 
He did, however, find Pyramid Lake. This being the body 
of water into which the Truckee River flows, and the 
Truckee being the only outlet to Lake Tahoe, it is well 
that this portion of the account be given in full. Fremont 
and Carson were on ahead. The day was January 10, 1843. 
Fremont writes: 

Leaving a signal for the party to encamp, we continued 
our way up the hollow, intending to see what lay beyond the 
mountain. The hollow was several miles long, forming a 
good pass (some maps designate this pass as Fremont Pass, 
others as San Emidio Canyon), the snow deepened to about 
a foot as we neared the summit. Beyond, a defile between 
the mountains descended rapidly about two thousand feet; 
and, filling up all the lower space, was a sheet of green water, 
some twenty miles broad (Pyramid Lake). It broke upon 
our eyes like the ocean. The neighboring peaks rose high 
above us. One peak, on the eastern side of the lake, rises 
nearly forty-four hundred feet above the lake, and on the 
side (toward which Fremont was looking) one peak rises 
4925 feet above the lake; and we ascended one of them to 
obtain a better view. 

The waves were curling in the breeze, and their dark- 
green color showed it to be a body of deep water. For a 
long time we sat enjoying the view, for we had become 
fatigued with mountains, and the free expanse of moving 



20 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

waves was very grateful. It was ,set like a gem in the moun- 
tains, which, from our position, seemed to inclose it almost 
entirely. At the western end it communicated with the line 
of basins we had left a few days since; and on the opposite 
side it swept a ridge of snowy mountains, the foot of the 
great Sierra. Its position at first inclined us to believe it 
Mary's Lake, but the rugged mountains were so entirely 
discordant with descriptions of its low rushy shores and open 
country, that we concluded it some unknown body of water, 
which it afterwards proved to be. 

On January 13th we followed again a broad Indian trail 
along the shore of the lake to the southward. For a short 
space we had room enough in the bottom; but, after travel- 
ing a short distance, the water swept the foot of the precipi- 
tous mountains, the peaks of which are about 3000 feet above 
the lake. The trail wound around the base of these preci- 
pices, against which the water dashed below, by a way nearly 
impracticable for the howitzer. During a greater part of 
the morning the lake was nearly hid by a snowstorm, and the 
waves broke on the narrow beach in a long line of foaming 
surf, five or six feet high. The day was unpleasantly cold, 
the wind driving the snow sharp against our faces; and, hav- 
ing advanced only about twelve miles, we encamped in a bot- 
tom formed by a ravine, covered with good grass, which was 
fresh and green. 

We did not get the howitzer into camp, but were obliged 
to leave it on the rocks until morning. The next morning 
the snow was rapidly melting under a warm sun. Part of 
the morning was occupied in bringing up the gun ; and, mak- 
ing only nine miles, we encamped on the shore, opposite a very 
remarkable rock in the lake, which had attracted our attention 
for many miles. It rose, according to our estimate, 600 feet 
above the water, and, from the point we viewed it, presented 
a pretty exact outline of the great pyramid of Cheops. Like 
other rocks, along the shore, it seemed to be Incrusted with 
calcareous cement. This striking feature suggested a name 
for the lake, and I called it Pyramid Lake; and though it 
may be deemed by some a fanciful resemblance, I can under- 
take to say that the future traveler will find much more strik- 
ing resemblance between this rock and the pyramids of Egypt 



DISCOVERY OF LAKE TAHOE 21 

than there is between them and the object from which they 
take their name. . . . 

The elevation of this lake above the sea is 4890 feet, being 
nearly 700 feet higher than the Great Salt Lake, from which 
it lies nearly west, and distant about eight degrees of longi- 
tude. The position and elevation of this lake make it an 
object of geographical interest. It is the nearest lake to the 
western rim, as the Great Salt Lake is to the eastern rim of 
the Great Basin which lies between the base of the Rocky 
Mountains and the Sierra Nevada — and the extent and 
character of which, its whole circumference and contents, it 
is so desirable to know. 

The Indians then directed him to a river of which he 
says: 

Groves of large Cottonwood, which we could see at the 
mouth, indicated that it was a stream of considerable size, 
and, at all events, we had the pleasure to know that now we 
were in a country where human beings could live. Reaching 
the groves, we found the inlet of a large fresh-water stream 
(the Truckee River), and all at once were satisfied that it 
was neither Mary's River nor the waters of the Sacramento, 
but that we had discovered a large interior lake, which the 
Indians informed us had no outlet. It is about 35 miles 
long, and, by the mark of the water-line along the shore, the 
spring level is about 12 feet above its present waters. 

In the meantime, such a salmon-trout feast as is seldom 
seen was going on in our camp, and every variety of manner 
in which fish could be prepared — boiled, fried and roasted in 
the ashes — was put into requisition ; and every few minutes 
an Indian would be seen running off to spear a fresh one. 
Whether these Indians had seen whites before, we could not 
be certain ; but they were evidently in communication with 
others who had, as one of them had some brass buttons, and 
we noticed several other articles of civilized manufacture. 
We could obtain from them but little information about the 
country. They made on the ground a drawing of the river, 
which they represented as issuing from another lake in the 
mountains three or four days distant, in a direction a little 
west of south; beyond which, they drew a mountain; and 



22 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

further still, two rivers; on one of which they told us that 
people like ourselves traveled. 

They still wandered to the south, passing near where Day- 
ton, Nevada, now is, and reaching Bridgeport and Mono 
and Twin Lakes. Here they struck north and west again 
and soon had to leave the howitzer. Passing through An- 
telope Valley they reached Markleeville in deep snow, passed 
Grover's Springs, entered Faith and Hope Valleys, and here 
it was Fremont gained his view of Lake Tahoe. It was 
February 14, 1844. He says: 

The dividing ridge of the Sierra is in sight from this en- 
campment. Accompanied by Mr. Preuss, I ascended to-day 
the highest peak to the right [probably Stevens Peak, io,iOO 
feet above sea-level] , from which we had a beautiful view of 
a mountain lake at our feet, about fifteen miles in length, 
and so entirely surrounded by mountains that we could not 
discover an outlet [Lake Tahoe]. We had taken with us a 
glass, but though we enjoyed an extended view, the valley 
was half hidden in mist, as when we had seen it before. 
Snow could be distinguished on the higher parts of the coast 
mountains, eastward, as far as the eye could extend. It 
ranged over a terrible mass of broken snowy mountains, fad- 
ing off blue in the distance. The rock composing the sum- 
mit consists of very coarse, dark, volcanic conglomerate; the 
lower parts appeared to be of a slaty structure. The highest 
trees were a few scattered cedars and aspens. From the im- 
mediate foot of the peak, we were two hours reaching the 
summit, and one hour and a quarter in descending. The 
day had been very bright, still, and clear, and spring seemed 
to be advancing rapidly. While the sun is in the sky the 
snow melts rapidly, and gushing springs cover the face of 
the mountain in all exposed places, but their surface freezes 
instantly with the disappearance of the sun. 

I obtained to-night some observations, and the result from 
these, and others made during our stay, gives for the latitude 
38 deg. 41' 57", longitude 120 deg. 25' 57" [the correct 
longitude for this place is 119 deg. 58'], and rate of the 
chronometer 25.82. 



DISCOVERY OF LAKE TAHOE 23 

The next night they encamped on the headwaters of a 
little creek, where at last the water found its way to the 
Pacific. The following morning they started early. 

The creek acquired a regular breadth of about 20 feet, and 
we soon began to hear the rushing of water below the icy 
surface, over which we traveled to avoid the snow; a few 
miles below we broke through, where the water was several 
feet deep, and halted to make a fire and dry our clothes. We 
continued a few miles further, walking being very laborious 
without snowshoes. 

I was now perfectly satisfied that we had struck the stream 
on which Mr. Sutter lived; and, turning about, made a 
hard push, and reached the camp at dark. Here w?e had 
the pleasure to find all the remaining animals, 57 in num- 
ber, safely arrived at the grassy hill near camp ; and here, 
also, we were agreeably surprised with the sight of an 
abundance of salt. Some of the horse-guard had gone to a 
neighboring hut for pine nuts, and discovered unexpectedly 
a large cake of very white, fine grained salt, which the In- 
dians told them they had brought from the other side of the 
mountain ; they used it to eat with their pine nuts, and 
readily sold it for goods. 

On the 19th, the people were occupied in making a road 
and bringing up the baggage; and, on the afternoon of the 
next day, February 20, we encamped, with the animals and 
all the materiel of the camp, on the summit of the pass 
[Carson Pass, at the head of Hope Valley] in the dividing 
ridge, 1000 miles by our traveled road from the Dalles to 
the Columbia. 

The people, who had not yet been to this point, climbed 
the neighboring peak to enjoy a look at the valley. 

The temperature of boiling water gave for the eleva- 
tion of the encampment, 9338 feet above the sea. 

This was 2000 feet higher than the South Pass in the 
Rocky Mountains, and several peaks in view rose several 
thousand feet still higher. Thus, at the extremity of the 
continent, and near the coast, the phenomenon was seen 
of a range of mountains still higher than the great Rocky 
Mountains themselves. This extraordinary fact accounts 



24 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

for the Great Basin, and shows that there must be a sys- 
tem of small lakes and rivers scattered over a flat country, 
and which the extended and lofty range of the Sierra Ne- 
vada prevents from escaping to the Pacific Ocean. Lati- 
tude 38 deg. 44', longitude 120 deg. 28'. [This latitude 
is that of Stevens Peak, the highest in that ridge, 10,100 
feet, and of course he did not go over the top of that peak, 
when Carson Pass, 1600 feet lower, was in plain view; 
this pass is the lowest one visible from the route on which 
they had come; another pass much lower leads out from 
the other or northern end of Hope Valley, but was not 
visible from their trail. The summit of Carson Pass is 
approximately latitude 38 deg. 41' 50"; longitude 119 deg. 
59'. Fremont's longitude readings are unreliable, owing to 
error in his chronometer.] 

From this point on, following the south fork of the 
American River, sixteen days from the summit landed Fre- 
mont and his party at Sutter's Fort, March 8. Of their 
arrival Fremont says: 

A more forlorn and pitiable sight than they presented 
cannot well be imagined. They were all on foot, each man 
weak and emaciated, leading a horse or mule as weak and 
emaciated as themselves. They had experienced great dif- 
ficulty in descending the mountains, made slippery by rains 
and melting snows, and many horses fell over precipices 
and were killed, and with some were lost the packs they 
carried. Among these was a mule with the plants which 
we had collected since leaving Fort Hall, along a line of 
2000 miles of travel. Out of 67 horses and mules, with 
which we commenced crossing the Sierra, only 33 reached 
the valley of the Sacramento, and they only in a condition 
to be led along. 

In concluding this chapter it should not be overlooked 
that on his maps of the expedition of 1843-44 Fremont 
called the mountain lake he had discovered " Lake Bon- 
pland." He says in a private letter : " I gave to the basin 
river its name of Humboldt and to the mountain lake the 




A WASHOE INDIAN CAMPOODIE, NEAR LAKESIDE TARK, 
LAKIL TAHOE 




WASHOE INDIANS AT LAKE TAHOE 




'THE SIGNAL CODE" DESIGN 



DISCOVERY OF LAKE TAHOE 25 

name of his companion traveler, Bonpland, and so put it in 
the map of that expedition." 

Amade Bonpland was born at Rochelle, France, in 1773. 
He was educated as a physician but became a noted botanist. 
He accompanied Humboldt to America, and subsequently be- 
came a joint author with the great traveler and scientist 
of several valuable works on the botany, natural-history, etc., 
of the New World. He was detained as a prisoner for 
nearly ten years by Dictator Francia of Paraguay to pre- 
vent him from, or to punish him for, attempting to culti- 
vate the mate, or Paraguay tea, in that country. He died in 
1858 at Montevideo, the Capital of Uruguay, in South 
America. 

His name as applied to Lake Tahoe is practically unknown, 
save to the curious investigator or historian. Other names 
given by Fremont have " stuck " to this day, amongst them 
being Humboldt, Walker, Owen, Kern and Carson rivers. 
Pyramid and Walker lakes, etc. 

The vicissitudes of the naming of Lake Tahoe is of suffi- 
cient interest to occupy a whole chapter, to which the reader 
is referred. 



CHAPTER III 

THE INDIANS OF LAKE TAHOE 

SINCE Lake Tahoe was the natural habitat of one of 
the most deliciously edible fishes found in the world, 
the Indians of the region were bound, very early in 
their history here, to settle upon its shores. These were the 
Paiutis and the Washoes. The former, however, ranging 
further east in Nevada, were always regarded as interlo- 
pers by the latter if they came too near to the Lake, and 
there are legends current of several great struggles in which 
many lives were lost, where the Washoes battled with the 
Paiutis to keep them from this favored locality. 

Prior to the coming of the emigrant bands in the early 
'forties of the last century, the only white men the Indians 
ever saw were occasional trappers who wandered into the 
new and strange land. Then, the beautiful Indian name, 
soft and limpid as an Indian maiden's eyes, was Wasiu — 
not the harsh, Anglicized, Washoe. Their range seemed to 
be from Washoe and Carson valleys on the east in winter, 
up to Tahoe and over the Sierras for fishing and hunting 
in the summer. They never ventured far westward, as the 
Monos and other mountain tribes claimed the mountain re- 
gions for their acorns and the game (deer, etc.), which 
abounded there. 

While in the early days of the settlements of whites upon 
their lands the Washoes now and again rose in protest, 
and a few lives were lost, in the m.ain they have been a 

26 



THE INDIANS OF LAKE TAHOE 27 

peaceable and inoffensive tribe. The Paiutis were far more 
independent and warlike, placing their yoke upon the weaker 
tribe. Indeed, when I first talked with the older Washoes 
and Paiutis thirty years ago they were full of stories of big 
wars between themselves. They showed me rocks near to 
the present town of Verdi, on the line of the Southern Pa- 
cific, on which their ancestors had made certain inscrip- 
tions which they interpreted as warnings to the Paiutis not 
to dare trespass beyond that sign, and the Paiutis had simi- 
lar notices inscribed upon bowlders near to their boundary 
lines. As a result of one of their fights the Washoes were 
forbidden the use of horses, and it is only since the whites 
have exercised control that the weaker tribe has dared to dis- 
regard this prohibition. 

To-day they number in the region of six hundred men, 
women and children. On account of their nomadic habits 
it is impossible to secure a complete census. 

In appearance they are heavy and fat, though now and 
again a man of fine, muscular form and good height is found. 
The women have broad, shapeless figures and clumsy, de- 
liberate movements. The older they get the more repulsive 
and filthy they become. While young some of the women 
have pleasing, intelligent and alert faces, while children of 
both sexes are attractive and interesting. But with them 
as with all aboriginal people who have absorbed the vices and 
none of the virtues of the whites, the Washoes are fast losing 
power, vigor and strength by disease and dissipation. The 
smoke of the campoodie fire is also ruinous to their eyes and 
ophthalmia is prevalent among them. It is no uncommon 
thing to see a man or woman entirely blind. 

The old-time methods of clothing have entirely disap- 
peared. When I first knew them it was not unusual to find 
an old Indian wrapped in a blanket made of twisted rabbit- 
skins, but I doubt if one could be found to-day. The white 



28 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

man's overalls, blouse and ordinary coat and vest for the men, 
with calico in variegated colors for the women, seem to have 
completely taken the place of their own primitive dress. A 
pair of moccasins, however, now and again, may be found in 
use at a dance or on some special occasion. 

They still paint and tattoo their faces, hands and wrists, 
in lines, triangles and circles. On their bodies also stripes 
of irregular design and varying colors are often used, all 
having a symbolic meaning originally, now lost, however, at 
least to all the younger members of the tribe. Painting the 
face has a definite and useful purpose. It softens the skin 
and prevents the frosts of winter from cracking it. 

Their dwellings are of the rudest character, mere brush 
shacks in summer, and in winter, nondescript structures of 
brush, old boards, railroad ties, tin cans, barrel-staves, old 
carpet, canvas, anything that will sustain a roof and keep 
out wind, rain and as much of the cold as possible. Their 
name for this structure is campoodie. Of course there is no 
pretense of sanitation, cleanliness or domestic privacy. The 
whole family herds together around the smoking fire, thus 
early beginning the destruction of their eyesight by the never- 
ceasing and irritating smoke. 

Their native food consists of fish, the products of the 
chase, which include deer, antelope, an occasional bear, rab- 
bits, squirrels and even coyotes, mountain-lions and wild- 
cats, with acorns, manzanita berries, currants and the seeds of 
wild peaches and the various grasses, together with a large 
assortment of roots. While they gather and eat pine nuts, 
they generally save them for purposes of barter or sale. 
Their carrying baskets contain a good wheelbarrow load and 
are called mo-ke-wit. 

They are great gamblers, their chief game being a guess- 
ing contest, where sides are chosen, the fortune of each side 
depending on its ability to guess who holds a certain decor- 




DAL-SO-LA-LE, THE ARTISTIC WASHOE BASKET MAKER 



THE INDIANS OF LAKE TAHOE 29 

ated stick. Men and women alike play the game, though 
generally the sexes separate and play by themselves. Quiet 
chanting or singing often accompanies the game. All alike 
smoke the cigarette. 

Of their religious beliefs little can be said. The fact is 
their simple nature-worship and the superstitions connected 
with it have been abolished, practically, by their association 
with the whites, and we have given them nothing as substi- 
tutes. As Mrs. W. W. Price says in a letter to me: 

In several talks with Susan and Jackson, after the death 
of Susan's sister, I endeavored to find out some of their 
religious beliefs. But these talks were not very satisfactory. 
Neither one knew what he did believe. Their old Indian 
religion — whatever it may have been — seemed to have 
passed, and the religion of the white man had not taken 
very deep hold. 

While Susan felt that she must cut her hair short and 
burn all her sister's things and do just so much wailing 
each day to drive off the evil spirits (on the occasion of 
her sister's death), she took most comfort in doing as " white 
woman " do — putting on a black dress. 

The most interesting result of my talks with Jackson 
was the following ghost story, which he told me to show 
that Indians sometimes did live again after death. His 
grandmother had told him the story and had heard it her- 
self from the man to whom it had happened. It is as fol- 
lows: "An Indian woman died, leaving a little child and 
her husband. The latter spent the accustomed four days 
and nights watching at her grave without food or drink. 
On the fourth night the grave suddenly opened and the 
woman stepped out before him. * Give me my child,' said 
she. The man said not a word but went quickly and 
brought the little child. The woman did not speak but 
took the child and suckled it. Then holding it close in 
her arms, she began to walk slowly away. The man fol- 
lowed her, but he did not speak. On, on they went, through 
forest and meadow, up hill and down dale. 

" By and by the man made a movement as though he would 



30 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

take hold of her to stop her. But the woman warded him 
ofF with a wave of her hand. ' Touch me not,' she said. 
' If you touch me, you must die too ! ' She stood and 
suckled the child once more, then laid him gently in her 
husband's arms. ' Go home,' she said, and faded from his 
sight. 

" Home he went with the child, full of awe and fear. 

" A few days afterwards the child died, though there 
was nothing the matter with it. The man, however, lived 
to be very old." 

Jackson was not sure whether he believed this story or 
not. But his manner of telling it indicated that it was very 
real to him. 

Now and again near Tallac one may see one of the dances 
of the Washoes. Though war is past with them they still 
occasionally indulge in their War Dance and its consequent 
Scalp Dance. There are not more than ten or a dozen of 
the old warriors still living who actually engaged in war- 
fare in the old days, and these are too old and feeble to 
dance. But as the young men sing and throw their arms 
and limbs about in the growing frenzy of the arousing dance, 
and the tom-tom throbs its stimulating beat through the air, 
these old men's eyes flash, and their quavering voices be- 
come steady and strong in the excitement, and they live in the 
conflicts of the past. 

Another of the dances that is still kept up is the Puberty 
Dance. Many white people have seen this, but not having 
any clew to its significance, it seemed absurd and frivolous. 
When a girl enters the door of young womanhood the 
Washoe idea is to make this an occasion for developing wiri- 
ness, strength, and vigor. Contrary to the method of the 
white race, she is made, for four consecutive days, to exert 
herself to the utmost. She must walk and climb mountains, 
ride and run, and when night comes on the fourth day, she 
and her mother, and as many of the tribe as are available, 



THE INDIANS OF LAKE TAHOE 31 

begin to dance at sunset and keep it up all night. The girl 
herself is designated by a long and slim pole which she car- 
ries in her hand, and which towers above her head. By her 
side stands her mother. The leader of the dance begins a 
song, a simple, rhythmic, weird chant, the words of which 
are archaic and have no significance to the Indians of to-day, 
but merely give syllables to hang the tune upon. As the 
leader sings he slowly moves his legs in a kind of oblique 
walk. The young men take his hand and follow. The 
women unite, and a rude circle is made, generally, how- 
ever, open, at the place where the dance-leader stands. 
After once or twice around, the leader moves first one foot, 
then the other, sideways, at the same time jogging his body 
up and down in fairly rapid movement, in perfect time to his 
song. In a few moments all are bobbing up and down, 
with the onward side-shuffling movement, and the real dance 
is on. This continues according to the will of the leader. 
When his voice gives a sudden drawling drop that dance 
ends. There are a few minutes for relaxation and breath, 
and then he lines out a new song, with new syllables, and 
a new dance begins. This continues practically all night, 
the dance-leader showing his memory power or his compos- 
ing genius by the number of new songs he introduces. I 
have counted as many as thirty to forty different tunes on 
one occasion. 

Just at sunrise the mother of the girl fetches one or two 
buckets of cold water, while the maiden undresses. The 
water is suddenly dashed over her " to make her vigorous 
and strong," and the dance comes to an end. 

This rude and rough treatment, in the early days, was 
made to have all the potency and sanctity of a religious rite. 
The reason for it was clear. The Washoes were surrounded 
by people with whom they were often at war. Indian war- 
fare takes no cognizance of sex or its special disabilities. In 



32 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

order that their women should not be regarded as hors de 
combat, or enfeebled, at such times and thus hamper the 
movement of the tribe in case a sudden flight was needed, the 
shamains or medicine men taught that strength, activity and 
vigor were just as possible at that time as any other. 
" Those Above " commanded that it be so. Hence all the 
sanctity and seriousness of a religious rite was thrown around 
these dances, and though the Indians of to-day have lost 
many of their old customs, this is one that is still rigorously 
observed. 

Another singular custom that still obtains is where, after 
the birth of a first child, the husband and father is required 
to fast and work arduously from the day of the birth until 
the child's navel shrivels off. This is to make him strong 
and vigorous, so that he may be able to give as much strength 
to his second and later children as he did to the first. 

As soon as a girl matures she is marriageable. Several 
and simple are the ways in which a Washoe youth shows 
his preference and desire for marriage. Equally simple are 
the girl's signs of acceptance or rejection. There is no cere- 
mony as the White Race understands that term, though to 
the Indian there is everything that is necessary to make the 
rite as binding as it is to his white brother and sister. 

Though polygamy has always been practiced, the custom 
to-day limits the wives to two, and only a few men have 
more than one wife. Where plural wives are taken they 
are generally sisters. There is little intermarriage among 
other tribes. Though it occasionally occurs it is fiercely 
frowned upon and all parties are made to feel uncomfortable. 

Prostitution with the whites and Chinese is not uncom- 
mon, and children born of such relationship have just as good 
a standing as those born in wedlock. The Indian sees no 
sense in punishing an innocent child for what it is in no 
way responsible for. He frankly argues that only a silly 



THE INDIANS OF LAKE TAHOE 33 

fool of a white man or woman would do so cruel and idiotic 
a thing. 

Children are invariably welcomed and made much of at 
birth, though it is seldom a Washoe woman has more than 
four or five babies. They are always nursed by the mother, 
and not often weaned until they are four or five years old. 

In the early days the labor of the sexes was clearly de- 
fined. The man was the hunter and the warrior, the guard- 
ian of the family. The woman was the gatherer of the 
seeds, the preparer of the food, the care-taker of the chil- 
dren. To-day there is not much difference in the division 
of labor. The breaking down of all the old customs by con- 
tact with the whites has made men and women alike indif- 
ferent to what work they do so that the family larder and 
purse are replenished thereby. 

In the early days the Washoes were expert hunters of 
bear and deer. They used to cross over into the mountains 
of California for this purpose, and the women would ac- 
company them. A camp would be established just below 
the snow line, and while the men and youths went out hunt- 
ing the women gathered acorns. My informant, an old In- 
dian, was a lad of eighteen at the time of which he spoke. 
In effect he said : " One day while I was out I found the 
tracks of a bear which I followed to a cave. Then I went 
to camp. But we Indians are not like you white men. You 
would have rushed in and shouted to everybody, ' I've found 
a bear's track! ' Instead I waited until night and when all 
the squaws had gone to bed I leisurely told the men who 
were chatting around the camp fire. They wished to know 
if I knew where the cave was, and of course I assured them 
I could go directly to it. The next morning early my uncle 
quietly aroused me, saying, ' Let's go and get that bear.' I 
was scared but had to go. When we arrived he took some 
pieces of pitch-pine from his pocket, and lighting them, gave 



34 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

me one, and told me to stand at the mouth of the cave ready 
to shoot the bear, while he went in and drove it out. I 
didn't like the idea, but I daren't confess my cowardice, for 
he at once went in. In a few moments I heard terrific 
growlings and roarings and then the bear rushed out. I 
banged away and he fell, and I was proud to tell my uncle, 
when he came out, that I had killed the bear. ' No, you 
didn't,' said he ; * your shots all went wild. Here's the shot 
that killed him,' and sure enough it was a shot of a different 
size from that of my gun." 

" Another time when I found a bear in a cave he said, 
' You must go in this time and drive out the bear.' I was 
sure I couldn't do it, but he insisted, and thrusting the 
lighted sticks into my hands bade me crawl in, keeping my 
eyes fixed the while, as soon as I saw them, upon those of 
the bear. I was to keep my back to the wall, and when 
I got well in, was to dash the light behind the bear and 
give a yell. I crawled in all right and soon got to where I 
could just about stand up, but when I saw the bear and he 
began to growl I was scared and backed out pretty quick and 
said I didn't have light enough. My uncle grabbed the 
sticks from me, called me a coward, rushed in, and as the 
bear dashed out shot and killed it." 

It is generally thought that Indians are good shots, but 
the testimony of the hunters of the Tahoe region is that 
the Washoes are very poor shots. One hunter tells me 
he has seen an Indian take as fine a standing shot as one 
need desire, again and again, and miss every time. On one 
occasion he was hunting deer with an Indian. The latter 
had gone up a steep slope, when, suddenly, he began to fire, 
and kept it up until fourteen shots were fired. Said he: "I 
was sure he must have a bunch of deer and was making a 
big killing, and hurried up to his side. When I got there 
I found he had sent all those shot after one buck, and had 



THE INDIANS OF LAKE TAHOE 35 

succeeded only in breaking its leg. With one shot I killed 
the wounded animal, went up to it and was about to cut its 
throat, when he begged me not to do so, asserting that if I 
cut the deer's throat that way I should never get a standing 
shot again, the deer would always be able to smell me." 

This is a quaint superstition. The Indians believe that 
though the particular deer be slain it has the power of com- 
municating with living deer and informing them of the pe- 
culiar " smell " of the hunter. Hence, as in the olden days 
they had no guns, only bows and arrows, and were com- 
pelled to creep up much nearer to their prey than is needful 
with a gun, anything that seemed to add to the deer's power 
of scenting the hunter must studiously be avoided. 

And, although the gun had rendered the old methods of 
hunting unnecessary, this particular precaution still per- 
sisted and had all the force of established custom. 

My friend then continued: "Another superstition I 
found out as I cleaned this deer. I cut out the paunch, the 
heart and the liver and offered them to the Indian. He re- 
fused them, saying it was food fit only for women, children 
and old men. If he were to eat them he would never have 
luck in hunting again." 

This superstition is common with many Indian tribes. It 
is based upon the idea that one becomes like that which he 
eats. If one eats the heart of a mountain-lion or bear he 
becomes daring and courageous. But to eat the heart of 
the timid deer is to make oneself timorous and cowardly. 

As soon after puberty as possible a boy is taken out by 
his father or uncle on a hunt. Prior to that time he is not 
allowed to go. But before he can eat of the product of the 
chase he must himself kill a deer with large enough horns 
to allow him to crawl through them. 

A friend of mine was out with a Washoe Indian whose 
boy was along on his first hunting expedition. They hunted 



36 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

a deer for nearly three days, but as soon as they found tracks 
the father, after studying them awhile, said : " This a little 
fellow. No good. He not big enough " — thus signifying 
to his son that his horns were not large enough to allow him 
to crawl through, hence it was no use following the animal 
further. 

The Indian is quite sure that deer can smell him and 
know when he is on the hunt. He becomes skillful in de- 
tecting and following their tracks, and knows just how to 
circle around their hiding-place and suddenly walk in upon 
them. My friend, referred to above, who is a great hunter, 
was once out with a Washoe. They had had three " bad " 
days, when suddenly they found a deer's track. It was 
fresh, but when they came to the hole where he had lain 
down to rest, though the place was quite warm, the deer had 
gone. The Indian at once exclaimed : *' That deer smell 
me. I must get rid of the Indian smell." Accordingly he 
scooped out a hole in the ground, heated a number of rocks 
in it, then, spreading jRr boughs over them, lay down over 
the rocks and took a " fir-sweat " for fully ten to fifteen 
minutes. As he arose he exclaimed : " Deer no smell me 
to-morrow," and my friend said he did no longer smell like 
an Indian, but like burnt fir wood. 

Turning to the Indian, however, he said : " You're all 
right, but how about me?" to which the reply instantly 
came : " You all right. Deer only smell Indian. He not 
smell white man." 

Chief among the women's work is the making of baskets. 
The best Washoe basket makers are not surpassed by any 
weavers in the world. At Tallac, Fallen Leaf, Glen Alpine 
and several other resorts basket-makers may be found, pre- 
paring their splints, weaving or trying to sell their baskets. 

Not far from Tahoe Tavern, about a quarter a mile away 
in the direction of Tahoe City, is the little curio store of 



THE INDIANS OF LAKE TAHOE 37 

A. Cohn, whose headquarters are in Carson City, the capital 
of the State of Nevada. Mr. and Mrs. Cohn hold a unique 
position in their particular field. Some twenty-five years 
ago they purchased a beautiful basket from a Washoe Indian 
woman, named Dat-so-la-le in Washoe, or Luisa Keyser in 
American, for she was the wife of Charley Keyser, a general 
roustabout Indian, well known to the citizens of Carson. 
Luisa was a large, heavy, more than buxom — literally a 
fat, — ungainly squaw. But her fingers were under the per- 
fect control of a remarkably artistic brain. She was not 
merely an artist but a genius. She saw exquisite baskets in 
her dreams, and had the patience, persistence and determina- 
tion to keep on weaving until she was able to reproduce them 
in actuality. She also was possessed by an indomitable reso- 
lution to be the maker of the finest baskets of the Washoe 
tribe. While she was still a young woman she gained the 
goal of her ambition, and it was just about this time that 
she offered one of her baskets to Mr. Cohn. He saw it 
was an excellent basket, that the shape was perfect, the 
color-harmony superior to any he had seen before, the stitch 
small, fine, and even, the weave generally perfect, the de- 
sign original and worked out with artistic ability. He saw 
all this, yet, because it was Indian work, and the woman 
was a rude, coarse mountain of flesh, a feminine Falstaff, of 
a lower order of beings and without FalstafE's geniality and 
wit, he passed the basket by as merely worth a dollar or 
two extra, and placed it side by side with the work of other 
Washoe and Paiuti squaws. A Salt Lake dealer came into 
the store soon thereafter and saw this basket. " How 
much?" he asked. The price was given — rather high 
thought Mr. Cohn — . " Twenty-five dollars! " " I'll take 
it ! " came the speedy response. 

A month or two later Cohn received a photograph from 
the purchaser, accompanied by a letter. " You know the 



38 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

basket, herewith photographed, which I purchased from you. 
Have you any more by the same weaver, or of as good a 
weave? If so, how many, and at what price? Wire re- 
ply at my expense." 

Then Mr. Cohn awoke, and he's been awake ever since. 
He wired his list of Dat-so-la-le's baskets, but he has had 
no reply, and that was twenty- five years ago. He then 
made arrangements with Dat-so-la-le and her husband. He 
provides them house, food, clothing and a certain amount of 
cash yearly, and he takes all the work Luisa makes. Every 
basket as soon as begun is noted as carefully as every breed- 
ing of a thoroughbred horse or dog. Also the date the bas- 
ket is finished. It is then numbered and photographed and 
either offered for sale at a certain price, which is never 
changed, or is put in the safety-deposit vault of the bank, 
to await the time when such aboriginal masterpieces will be 
eagerly sought after by the growingly intelligent and ap- 
preciative of our citizens, for their museums or collections, 
as specimens of work of a people — the first American 
families — who will then, possibly, have passed away. The 
photographs, here reproduced, are of some of Dat-so-la-le's 
finest work. 




SUSlli, THE WASHOE INDIAN BASKET MAKER, AND NARRATOR 
OF INDIAN LEGENDS 




JACKSON, THE WASHOE INDIAN, TELLING TRADITIONS OF HIS 
I'EOPLE ABOUT LAKE TAHOE AND FALLEN LEAF LAKE 



CHAPTER IV 

INDIAN LEGENDS OF THE TAHOE REGION 

AS all Students of the Indian are well aware these 
aboriginal and out-of-door dwellers in the forests, 
canyons, mountains, valleys, and on lake and sea- 
shores are great observers of Nature, and her many and 
varied phenomena. He who deems the Indian dull, stolid 
and unimpressionable, simply because in the presence of the 
White Race he is reserved and taciturn, little knows the ob- 
serving and reflecting power hidden behind so self-restrained 
a demeanor. Wherever natural objects, therefore, are of 
a peculiar, striking, unusual, unique, or superior character, 
it is reasonable to assume that the Indians, living within 
sight of them, should possess myths, legends, folk-lore, crea- 
tion-stories or the like in connection with their creation, 
preservation, or present-day existence. This is found ex- 
emplified in the legends of Havasupais, Hopis, Navajos and 
Wallapais as to the origin of the Grand Canyon of Ari- 
zona, of the Yohamities, Monos, Chuc-Chances, and others, 
of the distinctive features of the Yosemite Valley, the 
Hetch-Hetchy, etc. 

While the present-day, half-educated, half-civilized 
Washoes are by no means representatives of the highest ele- 
ments of natural enlightenment among the Indian race, they 
do possess legends about Tahoe, the following being the most 
interesting. 

All these stories, except the last, were gathered by Mrs. 

39 



40 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

W. W. Price of Fallen Leaf Lodge, from Indians with 
whom she has been very familiar for several years, named 
Jackson and his wife Susan. There has been no attempt to 
dress them up in literary fashion. They are given as near 
to the Indians' mode of telling as possible. They are won- 
derfully different from certain stories recently published in 
current magazines, professing to be Legends of Lake Tahoe. 
These latter are pure fiction, and to those familiar with 
Indian thought, reveal their origin in the imaginative brain 
of white writers who have but faint conceptions of Indian 
mentality. Mrs. Price is a graduate of Stanford University, 
and took great pains to preserve the Indians' exact mode of 
expression. As she herself writes: 

Long before the white man saw and wondered over the 
beauty of Tahoe, theorizing over its origin and concocting 
curious tales about its " unfathomable " depths, the Indians 
knew and loved it. And as among all other peoples, legends 
have grown up to account for every phenomenon of Nature, 
so among the Washoe Indians stories about Tahoe have 
been handed down from generation to generation. 

I do not vouch for these legends. The modern Indian 
too often tells what he thinks you want to know, — if only 
you will cross his hand with silver. But there are touches 
here and there that make me feel that for the most part 
they are remnants of very old legends. 

THE ORIGIN OF TAHOE, FALLEN LEAF, AND OTHER LAKES 

Long, long ago, before the white man came to Nevada, 
there lived in the meadow over beyond Glenbrook a good 
Indian. But though he was good, he was much annoyed 
by the Evil Spirit, who constantly interfered with all that 
he tried to do. Finally, he determined that he must move 
away and get over into the valleys of California. But when 
he tried to escape, the Evil One was always there ready to 
trip him in some way or other. 

In his trouble the Good Spirit came to his aid, giving him 
a leafy branch which had certain magic qualities. He was 



INDIAN LEGENDS OF TAHOE REGION 41 

to start on his journey. If he saw the Evil One coming 
he was to drop a bit of the branch and water would imme- 
diately spring up. The Evil One could not cross water, 
and thus, being delayed by going around, would give the 
Indian time to escape. 

The Indian made his way well along to where Tallac 
Hotel now is, when, looking back, he saw the Evil One off 
in the distance approaching with such strides that his heart 
was filled with great fear. In his terror he tried to pluck 
a leaf but it snapped off and he dropped almost his whole 
branch. To his delight and relief the waters began to 
rise and soon " Tahoe " — Big Water — lay between him 
and his enemy. 

Free-heartedly he hurried on his way up the canyon, but 
when he reached the spot where the head of Fallen Leaf 
Lake lies, he turned to reassure himself. Away off the Evil 
One was advancing. A new terror filled his soul. In his 
hand there remained of his magic branch only one little 
twig with a single leaf on it. 

Plucking the leaf, he threw it down and watched it fall 
waveringly through the air. As it touched earth the waters 
again began to rise and " Doolagoga " — Fallen Leaf — 
sprang into being and on its surface floated the little leaf, as 
many leaves now float in the fall of the year. 

Turning, he sped up the ravine, dropping bits of his twig 
as fear directed him, and in his path, Lily, Grass, and 
Heather lakes came up to guard his way. 

At last he was over the crest of the mountain and found 
himself safe in the long-wished-for Valley of California. 

THE LEGEND OF THE TWO BROTHERS 

Once long ago in Paiuti-land, Nevada, there lived 
two brothers. The older was a hunter and brought home 
much game. His wife, whose name was Duck, used to 
cook this for him, but she was very stingy to the younger 
brother, and often times he was hungry. When he begged 
her for food, she scolded him and drove him out of the 
campoodie, saying, " Got none for you." 

One day when the older brother was off hunting Duck 
was cleaning some fish. She had been very cross to Little 



42 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Brother, refusing to give him any food, and he was terribly 
hungry. Presently he came creeping up behind her and 
when he saw all the fish he became very angry. He took 
up a big club and before Duck could turn around he hit 
her on the head and killed her. Paying no attention to 
her dead body he cooked and ate all the fish he wanted 
and then lay down in the sunshine on a big rock and went 
fast asleep. 

By and by his Hunter Brother came home. Of course 
when he found his wife dead, he was filled with great anger 
at his young brother, though his anger was lessened when 
he thought of his wife's cruelty. He shook him very 
roughly and said, " I no like you any more ! I go away. 
Leave you alone ! " , But Little Brother begged, " Don't 
be angry! Don't be angry! Let's go far away! I help 
you all the time ! Don't be angry ! " 

Gradually he persuaded the Hunter Brother to forgive 
him and they started off together toward the " Big Water " 
— Lake Tahoe. On the way the Hunter Brother taught 
the Little Brother how to shoot with a bow and arrow. 
By the time they reached the spot now known as Lakeside 
both their belts were filled with squirrels that they had 
shot. 

At dusk they built a good fire and when there were 
plenty of glowing coals, Hunter Brother dug a long hole, 
and filling it with embers, laid the squirrels in a row on the 
coals covering them all up with earth. 

He was tired and lay down by the fire to rest till the 
squirrels should be cooked. With his head resting on his 
arms, the warmth of the fire soothing him, he soon fell fast, 
fast asleep. 

Little Brother sat by the fire and as the night grew darker, 
he grew hungrier and hungrier. He tried to waken his 
brother, but the latter seemed almost like one dead and he 
could not rouse him. At last he made up his mind he 
would eat by himself. Going to the improvised oven, he 
began to dig up the squirrels, counting them as they came 
to light. One was missing. Little Brother was troubled. 

" How that ? My brother had so many, I had so many ! " 



INDIAN LEGENDS OF TAHOE REGION 43 

— counting on his fingers — " One gone! " And he forgot 
how hungry he was as he dug for the missing squirrel. 

All at once he came upon a bigger hole adjoining the 
cooking hole. While he stood wondering what to do, out 
popped a great big spider. 

" I'll catch you I " cried the spider. 

"No, you won't!" said the boy, and up he jumped and 
away he ran, followed by the spider. They raced over 
stock and stone, dodging about trees and stumbling over 
fallen logs for a long time. At last Little Brother could 
run no more. The spider grabbed him and carried him 
back to his hole, where he killed him. 

It was almost daybreak when Hunter Brother awoke. 
He called his brother to bring more wood, for the fire was 
almost out. Getting no answer he went to look at the 
cooking squirrels. 

Greatly surprised to see them lying there all uncovered, 
he, too, counted them. Discovering one gone, he thought 
his brother must have eaten it and was about to eat one 
himself when he saw the old spider stick his head out of 
the hole. Each made a spring, but the Hunter Brother was 
the quicker and killed the wicked spider with his knife. 

Carefully he now went into the spider's hole. There, 
stretched out on the ground, lay Little Brother dead! Tak- 
ing him up in his arms, he carried him outside. Now this 
Hunter Brother was a medicine-man of great power, so he 
lay down with Little Brother and breathed into his mouth 
and in a few minutes he came back to life and was all right. ^ 

The Hunter Brother was very happy to have his Little 
Brother alive again. He built up the fire and while they 
sat eating their long-delayed meal Little Brother told all 
that had happened to him. 

The sun was quite above the horizon before the meal was 
finished, and soon Hunter Brother was anxious to be mov- 
ing on, so they took their way along the lake shore. On 
their way they talked and laughed one with another and 
seemed to agree very well, until they had gone around the 

1 Susan who was telling this story offered no reason why he had 
not restored Duck, his own wife, to life. 



44 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

lake and reached where Tahoe City now is. Here they 
quarreled and the Hunter Brother left Little Brother to 
return and go up the Big Mountain — Tallac — where he 
had heard there were many squirrels. After his departure, 
Little Brother decided to follow him and get him to make 
friends again. So he trudged along the lake shore until 
he came to Emerald Bay. 

There lying on the log at the edge of the lake, lay a 
water-baby. It was asleep with its head resting on its 
arms and its beautiful, sunshine-golden-hair was spread over 
it. 

" Oh," said Little Brother, " I'll get that beautiful sun- 
shine-hair as a present for my brother ! " So he crept very 
softly down on the log, thinking to kill the water-baby be- 
fore it awoke. But he was not successful in this, for the 
creature opened its eyes as he laid his hand on its hair, and 
a furious fight ensued. Sometimes it seemed as though 
Little Brother would be killed, but finally he was able to 
scalp the poor water-baby and get possession of the beau- 
tiful sunshine-golden-hair. Every one can see where this 
fight occurred. The red hill near Emerald Bay stands as 
a memorial of the struggle, for its color is caused by the 
blood of the slain water-baby. 

Tucking his prize in his hunting shirt and hugging it 
close, Little Brother now went on, murmuring to himself, 
" Oh, my brother like this, my brother like this beautiful 
golden-sunshine-hair ! " 

But suddenly, as he was climbing upward, he noticed the 
water lapping at his heels, and when he turned to see whence 
it came, he found that the big lake behind him was rapidly 
rising, and even as he stood wondering, it arose above his 
ankles. 

Then he remembered what he had heard of revengeful 
water-babies, but frightened though he was, he could not 
bear to throw away his prize. However, he knew he must 
do something, so he plucked out a few hairs from the scalp 
and threw them into the ascending waves. For a minute 
the water ceased to rise and he sped onward, but before long 
he felt the water at his heels again, and knew that once 
more he must gain a short respite by throwing out a few 
of the golden-sunshine-hairs. 



INDIAN LEGENDS OF TAHOE REGION 45 

And ever and again he had to do this until at last he 
spied his brother ahead of him. " Ah, brother," he cried, 
drawing the scalp from his blouse, " see what a beautiful 
present I have for you!" 

But when his brother turned toward him he saw only 
the angry, rising waters, and rushing forward he snatched 
the beautiful sunshine-golden-hair and cast it back into the 
waters, crying, " How you dare meddle with water-babies? 
Don't you know water surely come up and get you ? " 

And poor Little Brother felt very sad ; but the danger 
he had been in seemed to have endeared him once more to 
Hunter Brother and they stood arm-in-arm and watched 
the waters recede. 

But there were hollows in the land and when the waters 
went back they held the water and so were formed that 
chain of lakes on the other side of Tallac and Emerald Bay, 
the Velmas, Kalmia, Cascade, and others. 

The rest of the story is confused and full of repetitions. 
The gist of it is that Little Brother was ever getting into 
trouble from which Hunter Brother had to rescue him, 
for which Little Brother was most grateful and would go 
off seeking for a present to give to the Big Brother who 
was so kind to him. 

Once he got a young bear cub. He thought it was a dog. 
He petted it and brought it to his brother as a hunting-dog. 

Finally, after Hunter Brother had made a first-class 
hunter of Little Brother so that he could use his bow and 
arrows with great success, they went down toward the Sac- 
ramento Valley hunting deer. They followed a fine buck 
over hill and dale but could not get a good shot at him. 
At last worn out by running and suffering greatly, the 
Little Brother lay down and died. When his brother found 
him, he did not attempt to bring him to life again but buried 
him under a pile of rocks and leaves. 

THE " WILD-GRUB " HOLE AT GARDNERVILLE 

Once upon a time there was an old Indian who lived over 
in Hope Valley with his two grand-daughters. He was a 
mean old man. He made the girls work very hard all day 



46 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

long. They had to gather wild grass seeds and acorns and 
grind them into flour all the time. The old man caught 
plenty of fish and frogs which he took off for his own eat- 
ing, but he gave the girls none. 

One day he came in with a woodchuck skin and told the 
girls to fill it with wild wheat flour. He did not tell them 
what he wanted it for. When the skin was full he left 
the campoodie without a word as to where he was going. 
But the bag leaked and a little stream of flour trickled out 
and marked his path. He went away off to a lake where 
he caught plenty of fish and frogs on which he feasted un- 
til he could eat no more. Then he lay down by his fire 
and was soon fast asleep. 

Meanwhile in the campoodie the two girls were talking 
about the old man's meanness. " He makes us work so hard 
and we never have any fish to eat. He keeps it all him- 
self," said the older girl. 

" I wonder where he's gone now? " said the younger one, 
going to the door-way and looking out. Suddenly she no- 
ticed the little line of flour trailing off through the woods. 
" Ah, now I'll find him ! " And just calling to her sister that 
she would be back soon, she darted off. 

It was dark when she came back weeping. She threw 
herself on the ground outside the campoodie and poured out 
her story. She had found the old man lying there fast 
asleep, gorged with fish. The remnants of his feast lay all 
about him. She had not dared to waken him or speak 
to him, but coming home, had made up her mind to run 
away and not work for the mean old man any more. 

To this the sister agreed, and at daybreak they were scur- 
rying off through the forest. 

All day they traveled and when night came they were 
still in the wilds far from any Indian camp. 

Worn out, they lay down under a great pine and looked 
up at the stars. 

" Oh," said the older girl, " see that fine Star-man up 
there! I'd like to marry him! " 

" Oh, no ! " said the younger, " he belongs to me. I'd like 
to marry him! " 

They lay there telling what each would do could she 
only marry the Star-man, until they fell asleep. 



INDIAN LEGENDS OF TAHOE REGION 47 

When they awoke in the morning, lo, they found them- 
selves up in the sky, and the elder girl had a baby already 
— a star-baby ! At first the girls were very good to the 
star-baby but it cried a great deal. One day the younger 
girl was very cross and put it outside of the campoodie. 
The poor baby cried all the more until the elder sister took 
pity on it, but when she had fed it and it still cried, the 
younger sister became very angry and told her sister to put 
that " brat " outside. The sister was tired too, so she put the 
poor baby outside. 

When the baby could not make them come to him, he 
got up and went to find his grandfather, the Moon. He 
told him how mean his mother and aunt were to him. The 
old Moon was very angry. He took the star-baby by the 
hand and went tramping back through the sky to find the 
cruel mother and her sister. 

Now, the girls had been getting rather tired of their 
sky-campoodie and they longed for their home on the earth. 
They used to go to a hole in the sky and look down on 
the earth, wishing they were there again. Indeed, at the 
time the star-baby went off to find his grandfather, the 
Moon, they were at the hole in the sky, amusing themselves 
by looking through and indulging in vain regrets that they 
were no longer there. 

" Oh, sister," suddenly said the elder, " there goes our old 
grandfather! Poor old man! I wish we were with him! 
See, he's carrying big bags of wild wheat-flour and acorns! " 

Just then the old Moon came tramping up, and the whole 
sky trembled. The people on earth said it was thunder- 
ing. He grabbed the two girls by their hair and shaking 
them till they were almost dead, he hurled them down 
through the hole. 

Down, down, they went, straight down to where their 
old grandfather was walking along, little suspecting what 
was coming. They both hit him and, coming as they did 
with such force, they made a deep hole in the earth in 
which they were almost buried. 

That hole is over by Gardnerville. In that hole Indians 
can always find plenty of wild-grub — wild-wheat, wild 
potato, wild acorn — plenty there. Snow very deep. No 



48 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

difference. Always plenty wild grub there. I see that hole. 
I believe that story! 

THE ORIGIN OF THE DIFFERENT INDIAN TRIBES 

Long, long ago, away over in Paiuti-land there were some 
young boys and girls playing. They played all sorts of 
games, but they liked hand-ball best. And as they played, 
they sang songs of gladness. 

There was one old woman, their grandmother, who would 
not play with them. She had a little baby, her youngest 
grandchild, whom she was trying to quiet, but the little one 
cried and cried continuously. 

By-and-by the old woman heard a noise outside. She 
was frightened and called to the young folks. " Some one's 
coming! You better stop! Better hide! Maybe Evil 
One, devil, coming ! " 

But the young folks paid no attention to her warning. 
They kept on playing harder than ever. The old woman 
covered the baby with a big basket and hid her own face 
in her shawl. 

Then the Evil One came in. All the young folks turned 
to see who was coming in and as soon as they looked upon 
his face they fell dead. Only the old woman and the 
baby were left; for the Evil One did not see them. 

When he was gone, the old woman snatched up the baby 
and hurried off dow^n to the river. As she was hurrying 
along she met an old man. 

" Where are you going? " said he. Then the old woman 
saw that it was the Evil One himself. She was afraid but she 
did not want him to know it. She kept the baby covered in 
the basket and answered, "I'm going to the river to get wild 
potatoes ! " 

"Where are all the girls? " asked the Evil One. 

" Oh, they are all over behind the big mountain, playing 
ball!" 

The Evil One went off to find them, because he thought 
there were still some left, and the old woman quickly dug 
a big hole and hid herself and the baby away in it. 

When the Evil One found that the old woman had 
told him a lie, he was very angry. He came back and 



INDIAN LEGENDS OF TAHOE REGION 49 

hunted all day long till sundown for her that he might 
kill her. But he could not find any trace of her. He finally 
went home and then the old woman took the baby and hid 
on the top of a big rock, over near where Sheridan now is. 

In the morning the Evil One came back to hunt further, 
but without success. 

" I guess that the old woman is dead," said he, " or maybe 
she's gone across the river." But the Evil One loses his 
power if he touches water, so he dare not cross the river 
to follow her. 

The old woman watched him from the top of the rock. 
Many times she feared lest he should find her, and she 
covered the baby more closely. 

At last when he had given up the hunt, she saw him take 
a great basket and set it down in the road. Into this basket 
he put great bunches of elderberry roots, and as he put each 
bunch in, he gave it a name — Washoe, Digger, Paiuti, 
and so on. Then he put the lid on tightly and went off 
through the forest. 

The old woman watched till the Evil One had gone. 
Creeping quietly down, she came with the child — she was 
a little girl now, not a wee baby any more — and sat down 
near the basket. 

Presently there was a murmuring in the basket. " Oh, 
grandmother, what's that noise ? " said the little girl. 

" Never mind," said the grandmother, " don't you touch 
the basket ! " 

But the little girl kept teasing, " Oh, grandmother, what's 
in there?" 

And the old woman would say, " Don't you touch It ! " 

The old woman turned her back just one minute and the 
little girl slipped up and raised the lid ever so little. There 
was a great whirring noise; the lid flew off and out came 
all the Indians. Off through the air they flew — Washoes 
to Washoe land ; Diggers to Digger land ; Paiutis to Nevada 
— each Indian to his own home. 

The story given above is the one told by Jackson, but his 
wife, Susan, tells the same story with these essential differ- 
ences. In her narrative there is no Evil One. The old 



50 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

woman scolded the young people for playing, but they are 
not all killed. It is the old woman herself who took a 
Paiuti water-bottle and after filling it with water, took wild 
seeds and placed them in the bottle, naming them the differ- 
ent Indian tribes. The seeds swelled in the water until they 
were as big as eggs and out of these the Indians hatched 
like chickens, and began to fight. It is the noise of the fight- 
ing that the baby hears. 

As in Jackson's story the baby lets them out, but it is 
the wind that carries them off to their various homes. 

HOW THE INDIANS FIRST GOT FIRE 

The Indians were having a " big time " in a great log cabin. 
All the birds were there too, for in those days the Indians, 
birds, and animals could talk to each other. 

They were dancing all around the room and all were 
merry as could be. They had a huge wooden drum and, 
as they passed this, the dancers kicked it to make music. 

Now, among the birds who were there was a big blue- 
jay. He was a very saucy fellow, just full of mean tricks. 
When he came to the drum, he kicked it so hard that he 
broke it all to pieces. Of course this caused a great commo- 
tion. Every one was so provoked by his rudeness that they 
threw him out of the door. 

It was raining hard and the impudence was soon washed 
out of Mr. Blue-Jay. He begged at the door in vain, and 
at last he huddled up on the branch of a tree, thinking 
himself greatly abused. 

As he sat there, suddenly, far off, he saw a strange light. 
Now the Blue- Jay has an infinite amount of curiosity, so 
away he flew to investigate, quite forgetting his troubles. 

It was fire which the Indian god had brought down to 
earth. The Jay got a piece and soon came flying back to 
the great cabin where the dance was still going on. 

When he called now at the door, saying that he had 
something wonderful to show them, they knew that he was 
telling the truth. They let him come in, crowding about 
him to see this wonderful thing. They did not know what 



INDIAN LEGENDS OF TAHOE REGION 51 

to make of this strange new thing. Lest anything should 
happen to it, they dug a hole and buried the fire most care- 
fully. 

Tired out with the night's dancing the Indians all went 
off to rest, leaving the birds to watch the precious fire. But 
the birds were tired too, and it was not long before they 
were fast asleep. All except the owl. He was wide awake 
and he, being very wise, knew that the fire must be put in a 
safer place. He went out and calling the yellow snake, 
the rat, and the little " hummer " bird, he explained what 
he wanted them to do. The snake was to worm his way in 
under the logs and wait there till the hummer-bird brought 
him the fire. The rat was to go in and chew all the birds' 
wings so that they should not be able to catch the little 
hummer. They were all so fast asleep that the rat was able 
to do this very easily. 

All went just as they planned. The snake took the fire 
and hid a little spark of it in every buckeye tree. And there 
the Indians found it when they needed it. For rubbing a 
piece of cedar and buckeye together, they very quickly make 
the spark, and produce fire. 

A LEGEND OF LAKE TAHOE 

The following legend was published some years ago in 
Sunset Magazine. It was written by Miss Nonette V. Mc- 
Glashan, who heard it from a Washoe squaw. The story 
was told with strange gestures and weird pathos: 

The ong was a big bird, bigger than the houses of the 
white man. Its body was like the eagle's, and its wings were 
longer than the tallest pines. Its face was that of an Indian, 
but covered with hard scales, and its feet were webbed. Its 
nest was deep down in the bottom of the Lake, out in the 
center, and out of the nest rushed all the waters which fill 
the Lake. There are no rivers to feed the Lake, only the 
waters from the ong's nest. All the waters flow back near 
the bottom, in great under-currents, and after passing 
through the meshes of the nest are sent forth again. Every 
plant and bird and animal that gets into these under-currents, 
and sometimes the great trout that are swept into the net- 



52 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

like nest are there held fast to furnish food for the ong. 

He ate everything, he liked everything, but best of all he 
liked the taste of human flesh. No one ever heard or saw 
anything of such poor mortals as were drowned in these 
waters, for their bodies were carried to the ong's nest and 
no morsel ever escaped him. Sometimes he would fly about 
the shores in quest of some child or woman or hunter, yet 
he was a great coward and was never known to attack any 
one in camp, or when two or more were together. No 
arrow could pierce his feathers, nor could the strongest 
spear do more than glance from the scales on his face and 
legs, yet his coward's heart made him afraid for his toes had 
no claws, and his mouth no beak. 

Late one fall, the Washoes were making their final hunt 
before going to the valleys and leaving the Lake locked in its 
winter snows. The chief's daughter was sixteen years old, 
and before leaving the Lake he must select the greatest hero 
in the tribe for her husband, for such had been the custom 
of the Washoe chiefs ever since the tribe came out of the 
Northland. Fairer than ever maiden had been was this 
daughter, and every unmarried brave and warrior in the tribe 
wished that he had performed deeds of greater prowess, that 
he might be certain of winning the prize. That last night 
at the Lake, around the big council fire, each was to recount 
to the chief the noblest achievement of his life, and when 
all were heard the chief would choose, and the women join 
the circle and the wedding take place. For many years 
the warriors had looked forward to this event, and the tribe 
had become famed because of acts of reckless daring per- 
formed by those who hoped to wed the chief's daughter. 

It was the morning of the final day and much game and 
great stores of dried trout were packed ready for the journey. 
All were preparing for the wedding festivities, and the fact 
that no one knew who would be the bridegroom, among all 
that band of warriors, lent intensest excitement to the event. 
All were joyous and happy except the maiden and the hand- 
some young brave to whom she had given her heart. In spite 
of custom or tradition her love had long since gone out to 
one whose feet had been too young to press the war-path 
when last the tribe gave battle to their hereditary foes, the 



INDIAN LEGENDS OF TAHOE REGION 53 

Paiutls. He never had done deed of valor, nor could he 
even claim the right to sit with the warriors around the 
council fire. All day long he had been sitting alone on the 
jutting cliffs which overhang the water, far away from the 
laughter and shouts of the camp, eagerly, prayerfully watch- 
ing the great Lake. Surely the Great Spirit would hear his 
prayer, yet he had been here for days and weeks in unavailing 
prayer and waiting. 

The afternoon was well-nigh spent and the heart of the 
young brave had grown cold as stone. In his bitter despair 
he sprang to his feet to defy the Great Spirit in whom he 
had trusted, but ere he could utter the words his very soul 
stood still for joy. Slowly rising from the center of the 
Lake, he saw the ong. Circling high in the heavens, the 
monster swept now here, now there, in search of prey. 
The young brave stood erect and waited. When the ong 
was nearest he moved about slightly to attract its notice. 
He had not long to wait. With a mighty swoop, the bird 
dashed to earth, and as it arose, the young brave was seen 
to be clasped fast in its talons. A great cry of horror arose 
from the camp, but it was the sweetest note the young brave 
had ever heard. The bird flew straight up into the sky 
until Lake and forest and mountains seemed small and dim. 
When it reached a great height it would drop its prey into 
the Lake and let the current draw it to its nest. Such was 
its custom, and for this the brave had prepared by unwinding 
from his waist a long buckskin cord and tying himself firmly 
to the ong's leg. The clumsy feet could not grasp him so 
tightly as to prevent his movements. At last the great feet 
opened wide, but the Indian did not fall. In a mighty 
rage, the ong tried in vain to grasp him in his teeth, but the 
strong web between the bird's toes sheltered him. Again 
and again the bird tried to use his horrid teeth, and each 
time his huge body would fall through the air in such 
twastings and contortions that those who watched below 
stared in bewilderment. But what the watchers could not 
see was that every time the huge mouth opened to snap 
him, the young brave hurled a handful of poisoned arrow- 
heads into the mouth and down the big throat, their sharp 
points cutting deep into the unprotected flesh. The bird 



54 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

tried to dislodge him by rubbing his feet together, but the 
thong held firm. Now it plunged headlong into the Lake, 
but its feet were so tied that it could not swim, and though 
it lashed the waters into foam with its great wings, and 
though the man was nearly drowned and wholly exhausted, 
the poison caused the frightened bird such agony that it 
suddenly arose and tried to escape by flying toward the 
center of the Lake. The contest had lasted long and the 
darkness crept over the Lake, and into the darkness the bird 
vanished. 

The women had been long in their huts ere the council 
fire was kindled and the warriors gravely seated themselves 
in its circle. No such trifling event as the loss of a young 
brave could be allowed to interfere with so important an 
event, and from most of their minds he had vanished. It was 
not so very unusual for the ong to claim a victim, and, 
besides, the youth had been warned by his elders that 
he should not go hunting alone as had been his habit of late. 

But while the warriors were working themselves up into 
a fine frenzy of eloquence in trying to remind the old chief 
of their bygone deeds of daring, an Indian maiden was pad- 
dling a canoe swiftly and silently toward the middle of the 
Lake. Nona, the chief's daughter understood no more than 
the rest why her lover had not been dropped into the Lake, 
nor why the ong had acted so queerly, but she knew that 
she could die with her lover. She took her own frail canoe 
because it was so light and easy to row, though it was made 
for her when a girl, and would scarcely support her weight 
now. It mattered nothing to her if the water splashed over 
the sides; it mattered nothing how she reached her lover. 
She kept saying his name over softly to herself, "Tahoe! 
My darling Tahoe!" 

When the council was finished, the women went to her 
hut to bid her come and hear the decision her father was 
about to render. The consternation caused by her disappear- 
ance lasted until the rosy dawn tinged the Washoe peaks 
and disclosed to the astounded tribe the body of the ong 
floating on the waters above its nest, and beside it an empty 
canoe. In the foreground, and gently approaching the shore 
was the strangest craft that ever floated on water! It was 



INDIAN LEGENDS OF TAHOE REGION 55 

one of the great ong's wings, and the sail was the tip of the 
other wing! Standing upon it, clasped in each other's arms, 
were the young brave, Tahoe, and the daughter of the chief. 
In the shouts of the tribe, shouts in which warriors and 
women and children mingled their voices with that of the 
chief, Tahoe was proclaimed the hero of heroes! The de- 
cision was rendered, but the ong's nest remains, and the 
drowned never rise in Lake Tahoe. 



CHAPTER V 

THE VARIOUS NAMES OF LAKE TAHOE 

WE have already seen that Fremont, the discoverer 
of Lake Tahoe, first called it Lake Bonpland, 
after Humboldt's scientific co-traveler. That 
name, however, never came in general use. When the great 
westward emigration began it seemed naturally to be called 
by its Indian name, Tahoe. 

In Innocents Abroad Mark Twain thus petulantly and 
humorously expresses his dislike of the name, Tahoe, and 
sarcastically defines its meaning. 

" Sorrow and misfortune overtake the legislature that still from 
year to year permits Tahoe to retain its unmusical cognomen ! 
Tahoe! It suggests no crystal waters, no picturesque shores, no 
sublimity, Tahoe for a sea in the clouds; a sea that has character, 
and asserts it in solemn calms, at times, at times in savage storms; 
a sea, whose royal seclusion is guarded by a cordon of sentinel 
peaks that lift their frosty fronts nine thousand feet above the 
level world; a sea whose every aspect is impressive, whose belong- 
ings are all beautiful, whose lonely majesty types the Deity! 

" Tahoe means grasshoppers. It means grasshopper soup. It is 
Indian, and suggestive of Indians. They say it is Pi-ute — pos- 
sibly it is Digger. I am satisfied it was named by the Diggers — 
those degraded savages who roast their dead relatives, then mix 
the human grease and ashes of bones with tar, and ' gaum ' it 
thick all over their heads and foreheads and ears, and go cater- 
wauling about the hills and call it mourning. These are the gentry 
that named the Lake. 

" People say that Tahoe means ' Silver Lake ' — ' Limpid Water ' 
— ' Falling Leaf.' Bosh ! It means grasshopper soup, the favorite 
dish of the Digger tribe — and of the Pi-utes as well. It isn't 
worth while, in these practical times, for people to talk about In- 
dian poetry — there never was any in them — except in the Feni- 
more Cooper Indians. But they are an extinct tribe that never 
existed. I know the Noble Red Man. I have camped with the 
Indians ; I have been on the warpath with them, taken part in the 
chase with them — for grasshoppers; helped them steal cattle; I 

56 



THE VARIOUS NAMES OF LAKE TAHOE 57 

have roamed with them, scalped them, had them for breakfast. I 
would gladly eat the whole race if I had a chance. 
" But I am growing unreliable." 

With all due deference to the wisdom — as well as the 
humor — of Mark Twain as applied to Lake Tahoe, I 
emphatically disagree with him as to the Indians of the 
Tahoe region, and also as to the name of the Lake. Tahoe 
is quite as good-sounding a name as Como, Lucerne, Katrine 
or Lomond. A name, so long as it is euphonious, is pleasing 
or not, more because of its associations than anything else. 
The genuine Indian, as he was prior to the coming of the 
white man, was uncorrupted, uncivilized, unvitiated, unde- 
moralized, undiseased in body, mind and soul, a nature- 
observer, nature-lover and nature-worshiper. He was full of 
poetic conceptions and fired with a vivid imagination that cre- 
ated stories to account for the existence of unusual, peculiar 
or exceptional natural objects, that, in brilliancy of concep- 
tion, daring invention, striking ingenuity and vigor of detail 
surpass, or at least equal, the best imaginative work of Kip- 
ling or Mark Twain himself. It seems to me that his — 
the Indian's — name for this Lake — Tahoe — is both eupho- 
nious and full of poetic and scientific suggestion. It is 
poetic in that it expresses in a word the unequaled height 
and purity of so large a body of water, and scientific in that 
it is truthful and accurate. 

But Fremont, the discoverer, evidently did not ask or seek 
to know its Indian name. As stated elsewhere he erroneously 
conceived it to be the headquarters of one of the forks of the 
American river, flowing into the Sacramento, and he so de- 
picts it on his map, giving to it the two names " Mountain 
Lake " or " Lake Bonpland." But neither of these names 
was acceptable and they practically dropped out of sight. 

When the first actual determination of Tahoe's outlet 
through the Truckee River was made is not definitely known, 



58 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

but its approximate location was well enough established in 
1853 to enable the official map-maker of the new State of 
California to depict it with reasonable accuracy, and, for 
some reason, to name it Lake Bigler, after John Bigler, the 
third Governor of California. 

Citizens are still living both in Nevada and California who 
well remember when the Lake held this name, and the ma- 
jority of people undoubtedly used it until 1862. Officially, 
also, it was known as Lake Bigler in 1862, for in the Nevada 
Statutes there is recorded an Act approved December 19, 
1862, authorizing certain parties to construct a railroad " to 
be known as the Lake Bigler and Virginia Railroad Co., to 
commence at a point on the Kingsbury-McDonald road 
known as the Kingsbury and McDonald Toll House, thence 
along the southern and eastern shores of Lake Bigler, and in 
most direct practical route, to the divide between Virginia 
City and Washoe Valley on east side Washoe Lake, over and 
through the most practical pass to Virginia City," and a 
further right to construct branch road from Virginia to 
Carson City, Nevada. 

In 1 86 1, however, while Downey was Governor of Cali- 
fornia (he having been elected Lieut. Governor, and taking 
the office on the resignation of Governor Latham in January 
i860), an attempt was made to change the name from Bigler 
to the fanciful one of Tula Tulia, but fortunately it failed 
and the old name remained in general use. 

But in 1862 another effort was made in an entirely differ- 
ent direction and this time with success. It was brought 
about through the work of William Henry Knight, still liv- 
ing in Los Angeles, who has kindly furnished the following 
account : 

In the year 1859 I was the youngest member of an 
overland company which crossed the plains and mountains 
from St. Joseph, Mo., to California. Our train was in 



THE VARIOUS NAMES OF LAKE TAHOE 59 

three divisions and consisted of about twenty persons, and 
forty horses and mules. 

One morning in the middle of August we left our camp 
at the eastern base of the double summit of the Sierra 
Nevadas and began our ascent. Mounted on my faithful 
steed, Old Pete, I pushed on in advance of the caravan, in 
order to get the first view of the already famous mountain 
lake, then known as Lake Bigler. The road wound through 
the defile and around the southern border of the Lake on the 
margin of which we camped for two days. 

As I approached the summit I turned from the main road 
and followed a trail to the right which led to the top of a 
bare rock overlooking the valley beyond and furnishing an 
unobstructed view. 

Thus my first view of that beautiful sheet of water was 
from a projecting cliff looo feet above its surface, and it 
embraced not only the entire outline of the Lake with its 
charming bays and rocky headlands but also the magnificent 
forests of giant pines and firs in which it was embosomed, 
and the dozen or more lofty mountain peaks thrusting their 
white summits into the sky at altitudes varying from 8000 
to 11,000 feet above sea level. 

The view was, indeed, the most wonderful combination 
of towering mountains, widespreading valley, gleaming lakes, 
umbrageous forests, rugged buttresses of granite, flashing 
streams, tumbling waterfalls, and overarching sky of deepest 
cerulean hue — all blended into one perfect mosaic of the 
beautiful, the picturesque, and the majestic, that mortal eye 
ever rested upon. 

No imagination can conceive the beauty, sublimity and in- 
spiration of that scene, especially to one who had for weary 
months been traversing dusty, treeless and barren plains. 
The contrast was overwhelming. Tears filled my eyes as 
I gazed upon the fairy scene. I recall the entrancing picture 
to-day, in all its splendid detail, so vividly was it photo- 
graphed upon my brain. 

Since that hour I have crossed the continent ten times, 
over various railway routes, visited most of the States of the 
Union, and seven foreign countries, heard the testimony of 
others whose travels have been world-wide, and I doubt if 



6o THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

another scene of equal enchantment exists on the face of 
the globe. 

In 1 86 1, two years after my visit to Tahoe, I gathered the 
data for compiling the first general map of the Pacific 
States, which embraced the region from British Columbia 
to Mexico, and from the Rocky Mountains to the coast. 
It was ready for the engraver in February, 1862. I had 
instructed the draughtsman, V. Wackenreuder, afterward 
connected with the State Geological Survey, to omit the name 
of Lake Bigler, which was on contemporary maps. 

I invited John S. Hittell, editor of the Aha California, 
a leading San Francisco daily, and Dr. Henry DeGroot, 
writer on the Evening Bulletin and correspondent of the 
able Sacramento Union, to come round to Bancroft's publish- 
ing house and inspect the map. 

Dr. DeGroot had just returned from a visit to the Corn- 
stock silver mines in the Washoe district of Western Nevada. 
He suddenly turned to me and said: "Why, Knight, you 
have left off the name of Lake Bigler." I remarked that 
many people had expressed dissatisfaction with that name, 
bestowed in honor of a Governor of California who had 
not distinguished himself by any signal achievement, and I 
thought that now would be a good time to select an ap- 
propriate name and fix it forever on that beautiful sheet of 
water. 

The suggestion met with favor, and several names were 
proposed — Washington, Lincoln, then war President, Fre- 
mont, an early explorer, and other historic names. I asked 
Dr. DeGroot if he knew what the native Indians called the 
Lake. 

He drew a memorandum from his pocket and read over 
a list of Indian names local to that region, and exclaimed; 
" Here it is ; they call it ' Tahoe,' meaning ' big water,' or 
' high water,' or ' water in a high place.' The word rhymes 
with Washoe. 

^ I did not quite like the name at first mention, but its 
significance was so striking that I asked if they — Hittell 
and DeGroot — would favor its adoption and back it up with 
the support of their newspapers, and they agreed to do so. 

They advocated the adoption of the new name in their 



THE VARIOUS NAMES OF LAKE TAHOE 6i 

respective journals, the country papers almost unanimously 
fell into line, I inserted it on the map which bore my name 
— William Henry Knight — as compiler, and which was 
published by the Bancroft house in 1862. 

I immediately wrote to the Land Office at Washington, 
reported what I had done, and the sentiment that prevailed 
in California, and requested the Federal official to substitute 
the name of Tahoe for Bigler on the next annual map to be 
issued by his office, and in all the printed matter of the De- 
partment of the Interior thereafter. This was done. 

But a curious thing happened. Nevada was under a 
territorial government appointed by the Democratic admin- 
istration of President Buchanan. The Territorial Legisla- 
ture was in session when the subject was agitated by the 
California newspapers. A young statesman of that body, 
thirsting for fame, rose to his feet and in vociferous tones 
and with frenzied gestures, denounced this high-handed ac- 
tion of California in changing the name of that Lake 
without consulting the sister commonwealth of Nevada, 
as, according to the map, half of that noble sheet of water 
was in Nevada, and such action would require joint juris- 
diction. But his impassioned words were wasted on the 
desert air of the Sagebrush State. He could not muster 
enough votes to enact his indignation into a law, and the calm 
surface of Lake Tahoe was unruffled by the tempestuous 
commotion raging in legislative halls at Carson City. 

It was thus that the beautiful, euphonious, and significant 
name of " Tahoe " was first placed on my own map, and 
subsequently appeared on all other maps of the State, because 
it was universally accepted as a fitting substitute for the 
former name of " Bigler." A traveled writer refers to the 
Lake and the name selected in these terms: 

" Thus it was that we went to Lake Tahoe, the beautiful 
' Big Water ' of the Washoe Indians — Tahoe with the 
indigo shade of its waters emphasized by its snow-capped set- 
ting. The very first glance lifts one's soul above the petty 
cares of the lower valleys, and one feels the significance of 
the Indian title — ' Big Water ' — not referring to size alone, 
but to the greatness of influence, just as the all-pervading 
Power is the ' Big Spirit.' " 



62 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

One would naturally think that there had been changes 
enough. But no! In spite of the fact that the Federal 
government had accepted the change to Tahoe, and that the 
popular usage had signified the general approval of the name, 
the Hon. W. A. King, of Nevada County, during the Gov- 
ernorship of Haight, in California, introduced into the assem- 
bly a bill declaring that Lake Bigler should be " the official 
name of the said lake and the only name to be regarded as 
legal in official documents, deeds, conveyances, leases and 
other instruments of v^^riting to be placed on state or county 
records, or used in reports made by state, county or munic- 
ipal officers." 

Historian Hittell thus comments on this : *' The bill, 
which appears to have been well modulated to the taste and 
feelings of the legislature, went through with great success. 
It passed the Assembly on February i, the Senate on February 
7 ; and on February lo it was approved by the Governor. It 
remains a monument, if not to Bigler, at least to the legis- 
lature that passed it ; while the name of the Lake will doubt- 
less continue to be Tahoe and its sometime former designation 
of Bigler be forgotten." 

Now if Mark Twain really objected to the name Tahoe 
why did he not join the Biglerites and insist upon the preser- 
vation of that name? 

On the Centennial Map of 1876 it was named " Lake Big- 
ler or Lake Tahoe," showing that some one evidently was 
aware that, officially, it was still Lake Bigler. 

And so, in fact, it is to this date, as far as official action 
can make it so, and it is interesting to conjecture what the 
results might be were some malicious person, or some " legal- 
minded stickler for rigid adherence to the law," to bring suit 
against those whose deeds, titles, leases, or other documents 
declare it to be Lake Tahoe. 



CHAPTER VI 

JOHN LE CONTE's PHYSICAL STUDIES OF LAKE TAHOE 

IN certain numbers (November and December 1883 and 
January 1884) of the Overland Monthly, Professor 
John Le Conte, of the State University, Berkeley, 
California, presented the results of his physical studies of 
Lake Tahoe in three elaborate chapters. From these the 
foUovv^ing quotations of general interest are taken: 

Hundreds of Alpine lakes of various sizes, with their 
clear, deep, cold, emerald or azure M^aters, are embosomed 
among the crags of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The 
most extensive, as w^ell as the most celebrated, of these 
bodies of fresh w^ater is Lake Tahoe. 

This Lake, . . . occupies an elevated valley at a point 
where the Sierra Nevada divides into two ranges. It is, 
as it were, ingulfed between two lofty and nearly parallel 
ridges, one lying to the east and the other to the west. As 
the crest of the principal range of the Sierra runs near the 
western margin of this Lake, this valley is thrown on the 
eastern slope of this great mountain system. 

The boundary line between the States of California and 
Nevada makes an angle of about 131 degrees in this Lake, 
near its southern extremity, precisely at the intersection of 
the 39th parallel of north latitude with the 120th meridian 
west from Greenwich. Inasmuch as, north of this angle, this 
boundary line follows the 120th meridian, which traverses 
the Lake longitudinally from two to four miles from its 
eastern shore-line, it follows that more than two-thirds, of its 
area falls within the jurisdiction of California, the remain- 
ing third being within the boundary of Nevada. It is only 
within a comparatively recent period that the geographical 
coordinates of this Lake have been accurately determined. 

Its greatest dimension deviates but slightly from a medium 

63 



64 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

line. Its maximum length is about 21.6 miles, and its 
greatest width is about 12 miles. In consequence of the 
irregularity of its outline, it is difficult to estimate its exact 
area; but it cannot deviate much from 192 to 195 square 
miles. 

The railroad surveys indicate that the elevation of the 
surface of its waters above the level of the ocean is about 
6247 feet. 

Its drainage basin, including in this its own area, is 
estimated to be about five hundred square miles. Probably 
more than a hundred affluents of various capacities, deriving 
their waters from the amphitheater of snow-clad mountains 
which rise on all sides from 3000 to 4000 feet above its 
surface, contribute their quota to supply this Lake. The 
largest of these affluents is the Upper Truckee River, which 
falls into its southern extremity. 

The only outlet to the Lake is the Truckee River, which 
carries the surplus waters from a point on its northwestern 
shore out through a magnificent mountain gorge, thence 
northeast, through the arid plains of Nevada, into Pyramid 
Lake. This river in its tortuous course runs a distance of 
over one hundred miles, and for about seventy miles (from 
Truckee to Wadsworth) the Central Pacific Railroad fol- 
lows its windings. According to the railroad surveys, this 
river makes the following descent: p ii 

Distance Fall per Mile 

Lake Tahoe to Truckee 15 Miles 401 Ft. 28.64 Ft. 

Truckee to Boca 8 " 313 " 39.12 " 

Boca to State Line 11 " 395 " 35.91 " 

State Line to Verdi 5 " 211 " 42.21 " 

Verdi to Reno 11 " 420 " 38.18 " 

Reno to Vista 8 " 103 " 12.87 " 

Vista to Clark's 12 " 141 " ii.75 " 

Clark's to Wadsworth . . 15 " 186 " 12.40 " 
Wadsworth to Pyramid 

Lake 18 1 " 187^ " 10.39 " 

Lake Tahoe to Pyramid 

Lake 103 " 2357 " 23.11 " 

^ The elevation of Pyramid Lake above the sea-level has never, 



PHYSICAL STUDIES OF LAKE TAHOE 65 

During the summer of 1873, the writer embraced the 
opportunity afforded by a six weeks' sojourn on the shores 
of the Lake to undertake some physical studies in relation 
to this largest of the " gems of the Sierra." Furnished with 
a good sounding-line and a self-registering thermometer, he 
was enabled to secure some interesting and trustworthy 
physical results. 

(i.) Depth. It is well known that considerable diversity 
of opinion has prevailed in relation to the actual depth of 
Lake Tahoe. Sensational newsmongers have unhesitatingly 
asserted that, in some portions, it is absolutely fathomless. 
It is needless to say that actual soundings served to dispel 
or to rectify this popular impression. The soundings in- 
dicated that there is a deep subaqueous channel traversing 
the whole Lake in its greatest dimension, or south and north. 
Beginning at the southern end, near the Lake House, and 
advancing along the long axis of the Lake directly north 
towards the Hot Springs at the northern end — a distance 
of about eighteen miles — we have the following depths: 

Station Depth in Feet Depth in Meters 

1 900 274.32 

2 1385 422.14 

3 1495 455-67 

4 1500 457-19 

5 1506 459-02 

as far as we know, been accurately determined. Henry Gannet, 
in his Lists of Elevation {4th ed., Washington, 1877, P- i43)> 
gives its altitude above the sea as 4890 feet; and credits this num- 
ber to the Pacific Railroad Reports. But as this exact number 
appears in Fremont's Report of Exploring Expedition to Oregon 
and North California in the Years 184.3-44 (Doc. No. 166, p. 
217), it is probable that the first rude and necessarily imperfect 
estimate has been copied by subsequent authorities. This number 
is evidently more than 800 feet too great; for the railroad station 
at Wadsworth (about eighteen or twenty miles from the lake), 
where the line of the railroad leaves the banks of the Truckee 
River, is only 4077 feet above the sea-level. So that these num- 
bers would make Pyramid Lake 813 feet above the level of its 
affluent at Wadsworth; which, of course, is impossible. Under 
this state of facts, I have assumed the elevation of this lake to 
be 3890 feet. 



66 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Station Depth in Feet Depth in Meters 

6 1540 469.38 

7 1504 458.41 

8 1600 487.67 

9 1640 499.86 

10 1645 501.39 

These figures show that this lake exceeds in depth the deep- 
est of the Swiss lakes (the Lake of Geneva), which has a 
maximum depth of 334 meters. On the Italian side of the 
Alps, however. Lakes Maggiore and Como are said to have 
depths respectively of 796.43 and 586.73 meters. These two 
lakes are so little elevated above the sea that their bottoms 
are depressed 587 and 374 meters below the level of the 
Mediterranean. 

(2.) Relation of Temperature to Depth. By means of 
a self-registering thermometer (Six's) secured to the sound- 
ing-line, a great number of observations were made on the 
temperature of the water of the Lake at various depths and 
in different portions of the same. These experiments were 
executed between the nth and i8th of August, 1873. The 
same general results were obtained in all parts of the Lake. 
The following table contains the abstract of the average 
results, after correcting the thermometric indications by 
comparison with a standard thermometer: 

Depth Depth Temp, in Temp. 

Obs. in Feet in Meters F. deg. in C. 

1 o-Surface o-Surface 67 19.44 

2 50 15-24 63 17.22 

3 100 30.48 55 12.78 

4 150 45-72 50 10.00 

5 200 60.96 48 8.89 

6 250 76.20 47 8.33 

7 300 91.44 46 7.78 

8 330 (Bottom) 100.58 45.5 7.50 

9 400 121.92 45 7.22 

10 480 (Bottom) 146.30 44.5 6.94 

11 500 152.40 44 6.67 

12 600 182.88 43 6.11 

13 772 (Bottom) 235.30 41 5.00 

14 1506 (Bottom) 459.02 39.2 4.00 



PHYSICAL STUDIES OF LAKE TAHOE 67 

It will be seen from the foregoing numbers that the tem- 
perature of the water decreases with increasing depth to 
about 700 or 800 feet (213 or 244 meters), and below this 
depth it remains sensibly the same down to 1506 feet (459 
meters). This constant temperature which prevails at all 
depths below say 250 meters is about 4 degrees Cent. (39.2 
Fah.), This is precisely what might have been expected; 
for it is a well established physical property of fresh water, 
that it attains its maximum density at the above-indicated 
temperature. In other words, a mass of fresh water at the 
temperature of 4 deg. Cent, has a greater weight under a 
given volume (that is, a cubic unit of it is heavier at this 
temperature) than it is at any temperature either higher or 
lower. Hence, when the ice-cold water of the snow-fed 
streams of spring and summer reaches the Lake, it naturally 
tends to sink as soon as its temperature rises to 4 deg. Cent. ; 
and, conversely, when winter sets in, as soon as the summer- 
heated surface water is cooled to 4 deg., it tends to sink. 
Any further rise of temperature of the surface water during 
the warm season, or fall of temperature during the cold sea- 
son, alike produces expansion, and thus causes it to float on 
the heavier water below ; so that water at 4 deg. Cent., per- 
petually remains at the bottom, while the varying temperature 
of the seasons and the penetration of the solar heat only influ- 
ence a surface stratum of about 250 meters in thickness. It 
is evident that the continual outflow of water from its shallow 
outlet cannot disturb the mass of liquid occupying the deeper 
portions of the Lake. It thus results that the temperature 
of the surface stratum of such bodies of fresh water for a 
certain depth fluctuates with the climate and with the seasons ; 
but at the bottom of deep lakes it undergoes little or no 
change throughout the year, and approaches to that which 
corresponds to the maximum density of fresh water. 

(3.) Why the Water does not freeze in Winter. Resi- 
dents on the shore of Lake Tahoe testify that, with the ex- 
ception of shallow and detached portions, the water of the 
Lake never freezes in the coldest winters. During the winter 
months, the temperature of atmosphere about this Lake must 
fall as low, probably, as o degrees Fah. (-17.78 deg. Cent.). 
According to the observations of Dr. George M. Bourne, the 



68 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

minimum temperature recorded during the winter of 1873-74 
was 6 deg. Fah. (-14.44 ^^g- Cent.). As it is evident that 
during the winter season the temperature of the air must fre- 
quently remain for days, and perhaps weeks, far below the 
freezing point of water, the fact that the water of the Lake 
does not congeal has been regarded as an anomalous phe- 
nomenon. Some persons imagine that this may be due to 
the existence of subaqueous hot springs in the bed of the 
Lake — an opinion which may seem to be fortified by the 
fact that hot springs do occur at the northern extremity of the 
Lake. But there is no evidence that the temperature of any 
considerable body of water in the Lake is sensibly increased 
by such springs. Even in the immediate vicinity of the hot 
springs (which have in summer a maximum temperature of 
55 deg. C. or 131 F.), the supply of warm water is so limited 
that it exercises no appreciable influence on the temperature 
of that portion of the Lake. This is further corroborated 
by the fact that no local fogs hang over this or any other 
portion of the Lake during the winter which would most cer- 
tainly be the case if any considerable body of hot water 
found its way into the Lake. 

The true explanation of the phenomenon may, doubtless, 
be found in the high specific heat of water, the great depth 
of the Lake, and in the agitation of its waters by the strong 
winds of winter. In relation to the influence of depth, it is 
sufficient to remark that, before the conditions preceding con- 
gelation can obtain, the whole mass of water — embracing a 
stratum of 250 meters in thickness — must be cooled down 
to 4 deg. Cent. ; for this must occur before the vertical cir- 
culation is arrested and the colder water floats on the surface. 
In consequence of the great specific heat of water, to cool such 
a mass of the liquid through an average temperature of 8 
deg. Cent, requires a long time, and the cold weather is over 
before it is accomplished. In the shallower portions, the 
surface of the water may reach the temperature of congelation, 
but the agitations due to the action of strong winds soon 
breaks up the thin pellicle of ice, which is quickly melted by 
the heat generated by the mechanical action of the waves. 
Nevertheless, in shallow and detached portions of the Lake, 
which are sheltered from the action of winds and waves — 




_,f> 



:/''ia£jfU,' 



LILY LAKE 




CAVE ROCK, LAK1-: TAHOE 




PYRAMID PEAK AND LAKE OF THE WOODS 




CLOUDS OVER THE MOUNTAINS, LAKE TAHOE 



PHYSICAL STUDIES OF LAKE TAHOE 69 

as in Emerald Bay — ice several inches in thickness is some- 
times formed. 

(4.) Why Bodies of the Drowned do not Rise. A num- 
ber of persons have been drowned in Lake Tahoe — some 
fourteen between i860 and 1874 — and it is the uniform 
testimony of the residents, that in no case, where the accident 
occurred in deep water, were the bodies ever recovered. 
This striking fact has caused wonder-seekers to propound the 
most extraordinary theories to account for it. Thus one of 
them says, " The water of the Lake is purity itself, but on 
account of the highly rarified state of the air it is not very 
buoyant, and swimmers find some little fatigue ; or, in other 
words, they are compelled to keep swimming all the time they 
are in the water; and objects which float easily in other water 
sink here like lead." Again he says, " Not a thing ever floats 
on the surface of this Lake, save and except the boats which 
ply upon it." 

It is scarcely necessary to remark that it is impossible that 
the diminution of atmospheric pressure, due to an elevation 
of 6250 feet (1905 meters) above the sea-level, could sen- 
sibly affect the density of the water. In fact, the coefficient 
of compressibility of this liquid is so small that the withdrawal 
of the above indicated amount of pressure (about one-fifth 
of an atmosphere) would not lower its density more than one 
hundred-thousandth part! The truth is, that the specific 
gravity is not lower than that of any other fresh water of 
equal purity and corresponding temperature. It is not less 
buoyant nor more difficult to swim in than any other fresh 
water; and consequently the fact that the bodies of the 
drowned do not rise to the surface cannot be accounted for 
by ascribing marvelous properties to its waters. 

The distribution of temperature with depth affords a 
natural and satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon, and 
renders entirely superfluous any assumption of extraordinary 
lightness in the water. The true reason why the bodies of 
the drowned do not rise to the surface is evidently owing 
to the fact that when they sink into water which is only 4 
deg. Cent. (7.2 deg. Fah.) above the freezing temperature, 
the gases usually generated by decomposition are not produced 
in the intestines ; in other words, at this low temperature the 



70 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

bodies do not become inflated, and therefore do not rise to 
the surface. The same phenomenon would doubtless occur 
in any other body of fresh water under similar physical con- 
ditions.^ 

(5.) Transparency of the Water. All visitors to this 
beautiful Lake are struck with the extraordinary transparency 
of the water. At a depth of 15 to 20 meters (49.21 to 65.62 
feet), every object on the bottom — on a calm sunny day — 
is seen with the greatest distinctness. On the 6th of Sep- 
tember, 1873, the writer executed a series of experiments with 
the view of testing the transparency of the water. A num- 
ber of other experiments were made August 28 and 29, under 
less favorable conditions. By securing a white object of 
considerable size — a horizontally adjusted dinner-plate about 
9.5 inches in diameter — to the sounding-line, it was ascer- 
tained that (at noon) it was plainly visible at a vertical 
depth of 33 meters, or 108.27 English feet. It must be recol- 
lected that the light reaching the eye from such submerged 
objects must have traversed a thickness of water equal to at 
least twice the measured depth ; in the above case, it must have 
been at least 66 meters, or 216.54 feet. Furthermore, when it 
is considered that the amount of light regularly reflected from 
such a surface as that of a dinner-plate, under large angles of 
incidence in relation to the surface, is known to be a very 
small fraction of the incident beam (probably not exceeding 
three or four per cent.), it is evident that solar light must 
penetrate to vastly greater depths in these pellucid waters. 

Moreover, it is quite certain that if the experiments in 
relation to the depths corresponding to the limit of visibility 
of the submerged white disk had been executed in winter in- 
stead of summer, much larger numbers would have been 
obtained. For it is now well ascertained, by means of the 
researches of Dr. F. A. Forel of Lausanne, that the waters 
of Alpine lakes are decidedly more transparent in winter than 
in summer. Indeed, it is reasonable that when the affluents 
of such lakes are locked in the icy fetters of winter, much 

^ It should be noted that since 1874 there have been remarkably 
few deaths from drowning in Lake Tahoe, and that the major 
cases of those referred to by Dr. LeConte were of workmen and 
others who were generally under the influence of intoxicants. 



PHYSICAL STUDIES OF LAKE TAHOE 71 

less suspended matter is carried into them than in summer, 
when all the sub-glacial streams are in active operation. 

Professor Le Conte goes into this subject (as he later does 
into the subject of the color of Lake Tahoe) somewhat ex- 
haustively in a purely scientific manner and in too great 
length for the purposes of this chapter, hence the scientific 
or curious reader is referred to the original articles for fur- 
ther information and discussion. 

Color of the Waters of Lake Tahoe. One of the most 
striking features of this charming mountain Lake is the 
beautiful hues presented by its pellucid waters. On a calm, 
clear, sunny day, wherever the depth is not less than from 
fifty to sixty meters, to an observer floating above its sur- 
face, the water assumes various shades of blue ; from a bril- 
liant Cyan blue (greenish-blue) to the most magnificent ultra- 
marine blue or deep indigo blue. The shades of blue increas- 
ing in darkness in the order of the colors of the solar spectrum, 
are as follows: Cyan-blue (greenish blue), Prussian-blue, 
Cobalt-blue, genuine ultramarine-blue, and artificial ultra- 
marine-blue (violet blue). While traversing one portion of 
the Lake in a steamer, a lady endowed with a remarkable 
natural appreciation and discrimination of shades of color de- 
clared that the exact tint of the water at this point was 
" Marie-Louise blue." 

The waters of this Lake exhibit the most brilliant blueness 
in the deep portions, which are remote from the fouling influ- 
ences of the sediment-bearing affluents, and the washings of 
the shores. On a bright and calm day, when viewed in the 
distance, it had the ultramarine hue; but when looked fair 
down upon, it was of almost inky blackness — a solid dark 
blue qualified by a trace of purple or violet. Under these 
favorable conditions, the appearance presented was not un- 
like that of the liquid in a vast natural dyeing-vat. 

A clouded state of the sky, as was to be expected, produced 
the well-known effects due to the diminished intensity of light ; 
the shades of blue became darker, and, in extreme cases, al- 
most black-blue. According to our observations, the obscura- 
tions of the sky by the interposition of clouds produced no 



72 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

other modifications of tints than those due to a diminution of 
luminosity. 

In places where the depth is comparatively small and the 
bottom is visibly white, the water assumes various shades of 
green ; from a delicate apple-green to the most exquisite 
emerald-green. Near the southern and western shores of 
the Lake, the white, sandy bottom brings out the green tints 
very strikingly In the charming cul-de-sac called " Emerald 
Bay," it is remarkably conspicuous and exquisitely beautiful. 
In places where the stratum of water covering white por- 
tions of the bottom is only a few meters in thickness, the 
green hue is not perceptible, unless viewed from such a dis- 
tance that the rays of light emitted obliquely from the 
white surface have traversed a considerable thickness of the 
liquid before reaching the eye of the observer. 

The experiments with the submerged white dinner-plate, 
in testing the transparency of the water, incidentally mani- 
fested, to some extent, the influence of depth on the color of 
the water. The white disk presented a bluish-green tint at 
the depth of from nine to twelve meters; at about fifteen 
meters it assumed a greenish-blue hue, and the blue element 
increased in distinctness with augmenting depth, until the 
disk became invisible or undistinguishable in the surrounding 
mass of blue waters. The water intervening between the 
white disk and the observer did not present the brilliant and 
vivid green tint which characterized that which is seen in 
the shallow portions of the Lake, where the bottom is white. 
But this is not surprising, when we consider the small amount 
of diffused light which can reach the eye from so limited a 
surface of diffusion. 

In studying the chromatic tints of these waters, a hollow 
pasteboard cylinder, five or six centimeters in diameter, and 
sixty or seventy centimeters in length, was sometimes em- 
ployed for the purpose of excluding the surface reflection and 
the disturbances due to the small ripples on the water. When 
quietly floating in a small row-boat, one end of this exploring 
tube was plunged under the water, and the eye of the ob- 
server at the other extremity received the rays of light 
emanating from the deeper portions of the liquid. The 
light thus reaching the eye presented essentially the same 



PHYSICAL STUDIES OF LAKE TAHOE 73 

variety of tints in the various portions of the Lake as those 
which have been previously indicated. 

Hence it appears that under various conditions — such 
as depth, purity, state of sky and color of bottom — the 
waters of this Lake manifest nearly all the chromatic tints 
presented in the solar spectrum between greenish-yellow and 
the darkest ultramarine-blue, bordering upon black-blue. 

It is well known that the waters of oceans and seas ex- 
hibit similar gradations of chromatic hues in certain regions. 
Navigators have been struck with the variety and richness 
of tints presented, in certain portions, by the waters of the 
Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and 
especially those of the Caribbean Sea. In some regions of 
the oceans and seas, the green hues, and particularly those 
tinged with yellow, are observed in comparatively deep 
waters, or, at least, where the depths are sufficiently great 
to prevent the bottom from being visible. But this phe- 
nomenon seems to require the presence of a considerable 
amount of suspended matter in the water. In no portion 
of Lake Tahoe did I observe any of the green tints, except 
where the light-colored bottom was visible. This was, prob- 
ably, owing to the circumstance that no considerable quantity 
of suspended matter existed in any of the waters observed. 

Rhythmical Variations of Level in Lakes: or "Seiches." — 
As might be expected, the waters of Lake Tahoe are sub- 
ject to fluctuations of level, depending upon the variable 
supplies furnished by its numerous affluents. In mid-winter, 
when these streams are bound in icy fetters, the level falls ; 
while in the months of May and June, when the snows of 
the amphitheater of mountain-slopes are melting most rapidly, 
the level of the Lake rises, and a maximum amount of water 
escapes through its outlet. According to the observations of 
Capt. John McKinney, made at his residence on the western 
shore of this Lake, the average seasonal fluctuation of level 
is about 0.61 of a meter; but in extreme seasons it sometimes 
amounts to 1.37 meters. The Lake of Geneva, in like man- 
ner, is liable to fluctuations of level amounting to from 1.95 
to 2.60 meters, from the melting of the Alpine snows. 

But besides these variations of level due to the variable 
quantities of water discharged into them by their affluents, 



74 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

many lakes of moderate dimensions are liable to rhythmical 
oscillations of level of short duration, which are, obviously, 
but produced by fluctuations in the supply of vi^ater. It is 
to this kind of species of variation of level that our atten- 
tion will be directed in the sequel. 

This interesting phenomenon was first recognized in the 
Lake of Geneva; but was subsequently found to be common 
to all the Swiss lakes, as well as to those of Scotland. It 
is, therefore, a general phenomenon, which may be observed 
in all lakes of moderate dimensions. The inhabitants of 
the shores of the Lake of Geneva have long designated this 
rhythmical oscillation of the level of the water by the term of 
Seiche; and this designation has been adopted by scientific 
writers. 

These Seiches were first signalized in the Lake of Geneva 
in 1730, by Fatio de Duillier, who ascribed them to the 
checking of the flow of the waters of the Rhone on the shoal 
near Geneva by the force of the wind at mid-day. Addison 
and Jallabert, in 1742, supposed them to be caused by sud- 
den increments in the discharge of the affluents, due to the 
augmentation in the amount of snow melted after mid-day; 
or to the sudden increase in the flow of the Arve, checking 
the outflow of water by the Rhone. Bertrand supposed 
that electrified clouds might locally attract and elevate the 
waters of the lake, and thus produce oscillations of level. 
H. B. de Saussure, in 1799, attributed the phenomenon to 
rapid local variations of atmospheric pressure on different 
parts of the lake. J. P. E. Vaucher, in 1802 and 1804, 
adopted de Saussure's explanation, and confirmed it by many 
excellent observations. He, moreover, established that 
Seiches, more or less considerable, occur in all the Swiss 
lakes; and that they take place at all seasons of the year, 
and at all times of the day; but, in general, more frequently 
in spring and autumn. As regards the cause of the phe- 
nomenon, Vaucher shows how rapid local alterations of at- 
mospheric pressure would produce oscillations in the level 
of the lake, and compares them to the vibrations of a liquid 
in a recurved tube or siphon. Finally, Arago maintained 
that Seiches may arise from various causes, and traced 
the analogy between them and certain remarkable oscilla- 



PHYSICAL STUDIES OF LAKE TAHOE 75 

tions of the sea, including those arising from earthquakes. 

But physical science is indebted to Professor F. A. Forel, 
of Lausanne, for the most complete and exhaustive investi- 
gation in relation to the phenomena of S'eiches. This ac- 
complished physicist began his researches in 1869, and has 
continued them up to the present time. He has been able 
to demonstrate that these rhythmical oscillations occur in 
nearly all the Sw^iss Lakes (he studied the phenomena in 
nine of them), and that they follow in all cases the same 
general laws. Those of the Lake of Geneva have received 
the most elaborate and prolonged investigation. In March, 
1876, Forel established a self-registering tide-gauge {limni- 
metre enregistreur) on the northern, shore of this lake, at 
Morges; and, with the cooperation of P. Plantamour, an- 
other one was installed in June, 1877, at Secheron, near the 
city of Geneva, at the southern extremity. Since these dates, 
these two instruments have, respectively, been registering 
oscillations of the level of the water of the Lake of Geneva; 
and they are so sensitive as to indicate the waves generated 
by a steamer navigating the lake at a distance of ten or 
fifteen kilometers. 

From a most searching investigation of all the phenomena 
presented by the Seiches in the Swiss Lakes, Forel deduces 
the conclusion that they are really movements of steady uni- 
nodal oscillations (balanced undulations), in which the whole 
mass of water in the lake rhythmically swings from shore to 
shore. And, moreover, he shows that the water oscillates 
according to the two principal dimensions of the lake ; thus, 
giving rise to longitudinal Seiches and transverse Seiches. 
They occur in series of tautochronous oscillations of de- 
creasing amplitude; the first wave produced by the action 
of a given cause having a maximum amplitude. 

Causes. The disturbances of hydrostatic equilibrium 
which generate Seiches may be produced by a variety of 
causes. Among these, the following may be cited: (a) 
Sudden local variations of atmospheric pressure on different 
parts of the lake, (b) A descending wind, striking the sur- 
face of the lake over a limited area, (c) Thunder-storms, 
hail-storms, and water-spouts; and especially when the ac- 
companying winds act vertically, (d) The fall of a large 



76 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

avalanche, or of a land-slide into the lake, (e) And lastly, 
earthquakes. 

Observations show that the most frequent and evident of 
these causes are variations of atmospheric pressure and local 
storms. With regard to earthquake shocks as a cause of 
such fluctuations of level, it is a singular and significant 
fact that since Forel has established the delicate self-regis- 
tering apparatus on the shores of the Lake of Geneva, no 
less than twelve earthquake shocks have been experienced 
in this portion of Switzerland, and they have had no 
sensible influence on these sensitive instruments. In fact, 
a little consideration in relation to the character of such 
shocks renders it highly improbable that such brief tremors 
of the earth's crust could have been any agency in the gen- 
eration of rhythmical oscillations of the whole mass of water 
in the lake. Indeed, it is very questionable whether any 
earthquake waves are ever produced in the ocean, except 
when the sea-bottom undergoes a permanent vertical displace- 
ment. 

Lake Tahoe. From inquiries made of the inhabitants 
of the shores of Lake Tahoe, I was not able to discover that 
any rhythmical oscillations of the level of its waters have ever 
been noticed. Some residents declared that they had ob- 
served sudden fluctuations of level, which, from their sud- 
denness, they were disposed to ascribe to disturbances of the 
bottom of the Lake due to volcanic agencies, although they 
were unable to coordinate such oscillations with any earth- 
quake manifestations on the adjacent shores. 

It is evident, however, that until arrangements are con- 
summated for recording systematic observations on the vari- 
ations of the level of this Lake, we cannot expect that its 
Seiches will be detected. Of course, self-registering gauges 
would give the most satisfactory results ; but any graduated 
gauge, systematically observed, would soon furnish evidence 
of the phenomenon. For the longitudinal Seiches, " Hot 
Springs," at the northern extremity of the Lake, or " Lake 
Hbuse," at the southern end, would be eligible stations for 
gauges; and for the transverse Seiches, Glenbrook, on the 
eastern shore, or Capt. McKinney's on the western margin, 
would afford good stations. 



PHYSICAL STUDIES OF LAKE TAHOE 77 

As far as I am aware, true Seiches have never been ob- 
served in any of the American lakes. This fact is the more 
remarkable from the circumstance that long-continued and 
careful observations have been made on the fluctuations of 
level of several of the large Canadian lakes, with the view 
of testing the possible existence of lunar tides. Perhaps 
these lakes may be too large to manifest the uninodal rhyth- 
mical oscillations which have been so successfully studied by 
Forel in the smaller lakes of Switzerland.^ 

Be this as it may, there can be no doubt that Lake Tahoe 
is a body of water in all respects adapted for the manifesta- 
tion of this species of oscillation ; and that, like the Swiss 
lakes, it is subject to Seiches. Indeed, the far greater sim- 
plicity in the configuration of the basin of Lake Tahoe than 
that of the Lake of Geneva must render the phenomena 
much less complicated in the former than in the latter. 

Professor LeConte then gives his computations as to the 
probable duration of the oscillations on Lake Tahoe, should 
they occur there. 

^ It is proper to add that Fluctuations of level in the North 
American lakes have been noticed by various observers, from the 
time of the Jesuit Fathers of the period of Marquette, in 1673, 
down to the present epoch. Among those who have discussed 
this problem may be mentioned in chronological order: Fra 
Marquette in 1673, Baron La Hontan 1689, Charlevoix 1721, 
Carver 1766, Weld 1796, Major S. A. Storrow 1817, Capt. Henry 
Whiting 1819, H. R. Schoolcraft iSao, Gen. Dearborn 1826-29. 



CHAPTER VII 

HOW LAKE TAHOE WAS FORMED 

LINDGREN, the geologist, affirms that after the 
Sierra Nevada range was thrust up, high into the 
heavens, vast and long continued erosion " planed 
down this range to a surface of comparatively gentle topog- 
raphy." He claims that it must originally have been of 
great height. Traces of this eroded range (Cretaceous) 
" still remain in a number of flat-topped hills and ridges that 
rise above the later tertiary surface. There is reason to be- 
lieve that this planed-down mountain range had a symmetrical 
structure, for somewhat to the east of the present divide is 
a well-marked old crest line extending from the Grizzly Peak 
Mountains on the north, in Plumas County, at least as far 
south as Pyramid Peak, in Eldorado County. At sometime 
in the later part of the Cretaceous period the first breaks took 
place, changing the structure of the range from symmetrical 
to monoclinal and outlining the present form of the Sierra 
Nevada." 

This great disturbance he thinks, " was of a two-fold char- 
acter, consisting of the lifting up of a large area including at 
least a part of the present Great Basin [Nevada and Utah] 
and a simultaneous breaking and settling of the higher por- 
tions of the arch. Along the eastern margin a system of frac- 
tures was thus outlined which toward the close of the Ter- 
tiary was to be still further emphasized. The main break 
probably extended from a point south of Mono Lake to Ante- 

78 



HOW LAKE TAHOE WAS FORMED 79 

lope Valley and from Markleeville northward toward Sierra 
Valley. A large part of the crust block to the west of this 
dislocation also sank down. This sunken area is now indi- 
cated by Lake Tahoe and by its northward continuation, 
Sierra Valley, separated from each other only by masses of 
Tertiary lavas. ... It is worthy of note that within the area 
of the range no volcanic eruptions accompanied this subsi- 
dence." 

He continues: "As a consequence of this uplift the ero- 
sive power of the streams was rejuvenated, the Cretaceous 
surface of gentle outline was dissected, and the rivers began 
to cut back behind the old divide, carrying their heads nearly 
to the present crest line that separates the slope of the Sierra 
from the depression of Lake Tahoe." 

These rivers are the great gold bearing streams that caused 
the mining excitement of 1849. They all head near the Ta- 
hoe region, and include the Yuba, Feather, American, Moke- 
lumne, Calaveras, Cataract, and Tuolumne. 

Here, then, were two crest lines — the old Cretaceous line 
of which the Crystal Range immediately overlooking Desola- 
tion Valley on the west, with Pyramid and Agassiz Peaks as 
its salient points, — and the new Tertiary crest line, reaching 
somewhat irregularly from Honey Lake in the north to Mono 
Lake in the south. At the north of Lake Tahoe, " southwest 
of Reno, a large andesitic volcano poured forth lavas which 
extend between the Truckee River Canyon and the Washoe 
Valley. In the region extending northward from Lake Ta- 
hoe to Sierra Valley enormous andesitic eruptions took place, 
and the products of these volcanoes are now piled up as high 
mountains, among which Mount Pluto nearly attains 9000 
feet." 

These are the volcanic lavas which united the two crests 
forming the eastern and western borders of the Tahoe basin 
or depression, and through which the Truckee River had in 



8o THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

some way to find passage ere it could discharge its waters 
into Pyramid Lake, resting in the bosom of the Great Basin. 

Here, then, we have the crude Tahoe basin ready for the 
reception of water. This came from the snow and rainfall on 
its large and mountainous drainage area, a hundred greater 
and lesser streams directly and indirectly discharging their 
flow into its tremendous gulf. 

Its later topography has been materially modified by glacial 
action, and this is fully discussed by Professor Joseph Le 
Conte in the following chapter. 

It should not be forgotten, however, that while Mt. Pluto 
was being formed, other vast volcanic outpourings were tak- 
ing place. Well back to the west of the Tahoe region great 
volcanoes poured out rhyolite, a massive rock of light gray 
to pink color and of fine grain, which shows small crystals 
of quartz and sanidine in a streaky and glossy ground mass. 
On the summits nearer to Tahoe the volcanic outflows were 
of andesite, a rough and porous rock of dark gray to dark 
brown color. Lindgren says : " By far the greater part of 
the andesite occurs in the form of a tuffaceous breccia in nu- 
merous superimposed flows. These breccias must have issued 
from fissures near the summit of the range and were, either 
before their eruption or at the time of issue, mixed with enor- 
mous quantities of water, forming mud flows sufficiently fluid 
to spread down the slope for distances of fifty or sixty miles. 
The derivation of the water and the exact mode of eruption 
are difficult to determine. . . . Towards the summits the 
breccias gradually lose their stratified character and become 
more firmly cemented. Over large areas in the Truckee 
quadrangle the andesite masses consist of breccias containing 
numerous dykes and necks of massive andesite. . . . 

" The andesite volcanoes were mainly located along the 
crest of the Sierra, in fact, almost continuously from Thomp- 
son Peak, west of Honey Lake, down to latitude 38° 10'. 



HOW LAKE TAHOE WAS FORMED 8i 

Farther south the eruptions diminished greatly in Intensity. 
. . . Along the first summit of the range west of Tahoe the 
greatest number of vents are found. Beginning at Webber 
Lake on the north, they include Mount Lola, Castle Peak, 
Mount Lincoln, Tinker Knob, Mount Mildred and Twin 
Peak. The andesite masses here in places attain a thickness 
of 2000 feet. An interval followed in the northern part of 
the Pyramid Peak quadrangle where no important volcanoes 
were located, but they appear again in full force in Alpine 
County. Round Top, attaining an elevation of 10,430 feet, 
and the adjacent peaks, were the sources of the enormous 
flows which covered a large part of Eldorado County. Still 
another volcanic complex with many eruptive vents is that sit- 
uated in the western part of Alpine County, near Marklee- 
ville, which culminates in Highland Peak and Raymond Peak, 
the former almost reaching 11,000 feet. The total thick- 
ness of the volcanic flows in this locality is as much as 4000 
feet." 

It is to these breccias we owe the volcanic appearances in 
the Truckee River Canyon, a few miles before reaching the 
Lake. There are several layers of the andesites breccias at 
the head of Bear Creek Canyon, above Deer Park Springs. 

" None of the craters," says Lindgren, " of these volcanoes 
are preserved, and at the time of their greatest activity they 
may have reached a height of several thousand feet above the 
present summits." 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE GLACIAL HISTORY OF LAKE TAHOE 

WE have already seen in the preceding chapter how 
the great basin, in which Lake Tahoe rests, was 
turned out in the rough from Nature's work- 
shop. It must now be smoothed down, its angularities re- 
moved, its sharpest features eliminated, and soft and fertile 
banks prepared upon which trees, shrubs, plants and flowers 
might spring forth to give beauty to an otherwise naked and 
barren scene. 

It is almost impossible for one to picture the Tahoe basin 
at this time. There may have been water in it, or there may 
not. All the great mountain peaks, most of them, perhaps, 
much higher by several thousands of feet than at present, were 
rude, rough, jagged masses, fresh from the factory of God. 
There was not a tree, not a shrub, not a flower, not a blade of 
grass. No bird sang its cheering song, or delighted the eye 
with its gorgeous plumage ; not even a frog croaked, a cicada 
rattled, or a serpent hissed. All was barren desolation, fear- 
ful silence and ghastly newness. 

What were the forces that produced so marvelous a change ? 

Snowflakes, — " flowers of the air," — as John Muir so po- 
etically calls them. They accomplished the work. Falling 
alone they could have done nothing, but coming down in vast 
numbers, day after day, they piled up and became a power. 
Snow forms glaciers, and glaciers are mighty forces that cre- 
ate things. 

Let us, if possible, stand and watch the Master Workman 

82 







0m:>^^ 




GILMORE LAKE, PYRAMID PEAK AND THE CRYSTx\L RANGE. 
IN WINTER, FROM SUMMIT OF MOUNT TALLAC 




DESOLAT[ON VALLEY, LOOKING TOWARD MOSQUITO PASS 




HEATHER LAKE, NEAR GLEN ALPINE 




SUSIE LAKE, NEAR GLEN ALPINE SPRINGS 



GLACIAL HISTORY OF LAKE TAHOE 83 

doing the work that is to make this region our source of pres- 
ent day joy. We will make the ascent and stand on the sum- 
mit of Pyramid Peak. This is now 10,020 feet above sea 
level, rising almost sheer above Desolation Valley immediately 
at our feet. 

The first thing that arrests the visitor's attention is the pe- 
culiar shape of the peak upon which he stands, and of the 
whole of the Crystal Range. Both east and west it is a great 
precipice, with a razor-like edge, which seems to have been 
especially designed for the purpose of arresting the clouds and 
snow blown over the mountain ranges of the High Sierras, 
and preventing their contents falling upon the waste and 
thirsty, almost desert-areas of western Nevada, which lie a 
few miles further east. 

Whence do the rains and snow-storms come? 

One hundred and fifty miles, a trifle more or less, to the 
westward is the vast bosom of the Pacific Ocean. Its warm 
current is constantly kissed by the fervid sun and its water 
allured, in the shape of mist and fog, to ascend into the heav- 
ens above. Here it is gently wafted by the steady ocean 
breezes over the land to the east. In the summer the wind 
currents now and again swing the clouds thus formed north- 
ward, and Oregon and Washington receive rain from the op- 
eration of the sun upon the Pacific Ocean of the south. In 
June and July, however, the Tahoe region sees occasional 
rains which clear the atmosphere, freshen the flowers and 
trees, and give an added charm to everything. But in the 
fall and winter the winds send the clouds more directly east- 
ward, and in crossing the Sierran summits the mist and fog 
become colder and colder, until, when the clouds are ar- 
rested by the stern barriers of the Crystal Range, and neces- 
sity compels them to discharge their burden, they scatter snow 
so profusely that one who sees this region only in the summer 
has no conception of its winter appearance. The snow does 



84 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

not fall as In ordinary storms, but, in these altitudes, the very 
heavens seem to press down, ladened with snow, and it falls 
in sheets to a depth of five, ten, twenty, thirty and even more 
feet, on the level. 

Look now, however, at the western edge of the Crystal 
Range. It has no " slopes." It is composed of a series of 
absolute precipices, on the edge of one of which we stand. 
These precipices, and the razor edge, are fortified and but- 
tressed by arms which reach out westward and form rude 
crescents, called by the French geologists cirques, for here the 
snow lodges, and is packed to great density and solidity with 
all the force, fervor and fury of the mountain winds. 

But the snow does not fall alone on the western cirques. 
It discharges with such prodigality, and the wind demands 
its release with such precipitancy, that it lodges in equally 
vast masses on the eastern slopes of the Crystal Range. For, 
while the eastern side of this range is steep enough to be 
termed in general parlance " precipitous," it has a decided 
slope when compared with the sheer drop of the western 
side. Here the configuration and arrangement of the rock- 
masses also have created a number of cirques, where remnants 
of the winter's snow masses are yet to be seen. These snow 
masses are baby glaciers, or snow being slowly manufactured 
into glaciers, or, as some authorities think, the remnants of the 
vast glaciers that once covered this whole region with their 
heavy and slowly-moving icy cap. 

On the Tallac Range the snow fell heavily toward Desola- 
tion Valley, but also on the steep and precipitous slopes that 
faced the north. So also with the Angora Range. Its west- 
ern exposure, however, is of a fairly gentle slope, so that the 
snow was blown over to the eastern side, where there are 
several precipitous cirques of stupendous size for the preserva- 
tion of the accumulated and accumulating snow. 

Now let us, in imagination, ascend in a balloon over this 



GLACIAL HISTORY OF LAKE TAHOE 85 

region and hover there, seeking to reconstruct, by mental 
images, the appearance it must have assumed and the action 
that took place in the ages long ago. 

Snow, thirty, fifty, one hundred or more feet deep lay, on 
the level, and on the mountain slopes or in precipitous cirques 
twice, thrice, or ten times those depths. Snow thus packed 
together soon changes its character. From the light airy 
flake, it becomes, in masses, what the geologists term neve. 
This is a granular snow, intermediate between snow and ice. 
A little lower down this neve is converted into true glacial 
ice-beds, which grow longer, broader, deeper and thicker as 
the neve presses down from above. 

Lay minds conceive of these great ice-beds of transformed 
snow as inert, immovable bodies. They think the snow lies 
upon the surface of the rocks or earth. The scientific ob- 
server knows better. By the very inertia of its own vast and 
almost inconceivable weight the glacier is compelled to move. 
Imagine the millions of millions of tons of ice of these slop- 
ing masses, pressing down upon the hundreds of thousands of 
tons of ice that lie below. Slowly the mass begins to move. 
But all parts of it do not move with equal velocity. The cen- 
ter travels quicker than the margins, and the velocity of the 
surface is greater than that of the bottom. Naturally the 
velocity increases with the slope, and when the ice begins to 
soften in the summer time its rate of motion is increased. 

But not only does the ice move. There have been other 
forces set in motion as well as that of the ice. The fierce 
attacks of the storms, the insidious forces of frost, of expan- 
sion and contraction, of lightning, etc., have shattered and 
loosened vast masses of the mountain summits. Some of these 
have weathered into toppling masses, which required only a 
heavy wind or slight contractions to send them from their 
uncertain bases onto the snow or ice beneath. And the other 
causes mentioned all had their influences in breaking up the 



86 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

peaks and ridges and depositing great jagged bowlders of rock 
in the slowly-moving glaciers. 

Little by little these masses of rock worked their way down 
lower into the ice-bed. Sometime they must reach the bottom, 
yet, though they rest upon granite, and granite would cleave 
to granite, the irresistible pressure from above forces the ice 
and rock masses forward. Thus the sharp-edged blocks of 
granite become the blades in the tools that are to help cut out 
the contours of a world's surface. In other words the mass 
of glacial ice is the grooving or smoothing plane, and the 
granite blocks, aided by the ice, become the many and diverse 
blades in this vast and irresistible tool. Some cut deep and 
square, others with flutings and bevelings, or curves, but each 
helps in the great work of planing off, in some way, the 
rocky masses over which they move. Hence it will be seen 
that the grooving and marking, the fluting and beveling, the 
planing and smoothing processes of the ice are materially aided 
and abetted by the very hardness and weight of the granite 
and other rocks it carries with it. 

Now let Joseph LeConte take up the theme and give us 
of the rich treasure-store of his knowledge and observation. 
In the American Journal of Science and Arts, Third Series, 
for 1875, he discussed the very field we are now interested in, 
and his fascinating and illuminating explanations render the 
subject perfectly clear. Said he : 

Last summer I had again an opportunity of examining the 
pathways of some of the ancient glaciers of the Sierra. One 
of the grandest of these is what I call the Lake Valley 
Glacier.^ Taking its rise in snow fountains among the high 
peaks in the neighborhood of Silver Mountain, this great 
glacier flowed northward down Lake Valley, and, gathering 
tributaries from the summit ridges on either side of the val- 

1 This is the name given by Dr. LeConte to the Basin in which 
Lake Tahoe rests and including the meadow lands above Tallac. 




SNOW BANK, DESOLATION VALLEY, NEAR LAKE TAHOE 





GRASS LAKE, NEAR GLEN ALPINE SlTax 



■«>^*^"^^ 



GLACIAL HISTORY OF LAKE TAHOE 87 

ley, but especially from the higher western summits, it filled 
the basin of Lake Tahoe, forming a great " mer de glace," 
50 miles long, 15 miles wide, and at least 2000 feet deep, 
and finally escaped northeastward to the plains. The outlets 
of this great " mer de glace " are yet imperfectly known. A 
part of the ice certainly escaped by Truckee Canyon (the 
present outlet of the Lake) ; a part probably went over the 
northeastern margin of the basin. My studies during the 
summer were confined to some of the larger tributaries of this 
great glacier. 

Truckee Canyon and Donner Lake Glaciers. I have said 
that one of the outlets of the great " mer de glace " was by 
the Truckee River Canyon. The stage road to Lake Tahoe 
runs in this canyon for fifteen miles. In most parts of the 
canyon the rocks are volcanic and crumbling, and therefore 
ill adapted to retain glacial marks; yet in some places where 
the rock is harder these marks are unmistakable. On my 
way to and from Lake Tahoe, I observed that the Truckee 
Canyon glacier was joined at the town of Truckee by a short 
but powerful tributary, which, taking its rise in an immense 
rocky amphitheater surrounding the head of Donner Lake, 
flowed eastward. Donner Lake, which occupies the lower 
portion of this amphitheater, was evidently formed by the 
down-flowing of the ice from the steep slopes of the upper 
portion near the summit. The stage road from Truckee 
to the summit runs along the base of a moraine close by the 
margin of the lake on one side, while on the other side, 
along the apparently almost perpendicular rocky face of the 
amphitheater, 1000 feet above the surface of the lake, the 
Central Pacific Railroad winds its fearful way to the same 
place. In the upper portion of this amphitheater large 
patches of snow still remain unmelted during the summer. 

My examination of these two glaciers, however, was very 
cursory. I hasten on, therefore, to others which I traced 
more carefully. 

Lake Tahoe lies countersunk on the very top of the Sierra. 
This great range is here divided into two summit ridges, be- 
tween which lies a trough 50 miles long, 20 miles wide, 
and 3000 to 3500 feet deep. This trough is Lake Valley. 
Its lower half is filled with the waters of Lake Tahoe. 



88 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

The area of this Lake is about 250 square miles, its depth 
1640 feet, and its altitude 6200 feet. It is certain that dur- 
ing the fullness of glacial times this trough was a great 
" mer de glace," receiving tributaries from all directions 
except the north. But as the Glacial Period waned — as 
the great " mer de glace " dwindled and melted away, and 
the lake basin became occupied by water instead, the tribu- 
taries still remained as separate glaciers flowing into the 
Lake. The tracks of these lingering small glaciers are far 
more easily traced and their records more easily read, than 
those of the greater but more ancient glacier of which they 
were once but the tributaries. 

Of the two summit ridges mentioned above the western 
is the higher. It bears the most snow now^ and in glacial 
times gave origin to the grandest glaciers. Again: the 
peaks on both these summits rise higher and higher as we 
go toward the upper or southern end of the Lake. Hence 
the largest glaciers ran into the Lake at its southwestern end. 
And, since the mountain slopes here are toward the north- 
east and therefore the shadiest and coolest, here also the 
glaciers have had the greatest vitality and lived the longest, 
and have, therefore, left the plainest records. Doubtless, 
careful examination would discover the pathways of glaciers 
running into the Lake from the eastern summit also; but I 
failed to detect any very clear traces of such, either on the 
eastern or on the northern portion of the western side of 
the Lake; while between the southwestern end and Sugar 
Pine Point, a distance of only eight or ten miles, I saw dis- 
tinctly the pathways of five or six. North of Sugar Pine 
Point there are also several. They are all marked by mo- 
raine ridges running down from the summits and project- 
ing as points into the Lake. The pathways of three of these 
glaciers I studied somewhat carefully, and after a few pre- 
liminary remarks, will describe in some detail. 

Mountains are the culminating points of the scenic 
grandeur and beauty of the earth. They are so, because 
they are also the culminating points of all geological agen- 
cies — igneous agencies in mountain formation, aqueous 
agencies in mountain sculpture. Now, I have already said 
that the mountain peaks which stand above the Lake on 



GLACIAL HISTORY OF LAKE TAHOE 89 

every side are highest at the southwestern end, where they 
rise to the altitude of 3000 feet above the lake surface, or 
between gooo and 10,000 feet above the sea. Here, there- 
fore, ran in the greatest glaciers; here we find the pro- 
foundest glacial sculpturings ; and here also are clustered all 
the finest beauties of this the most beautiful of mountain 
lakes. I need only name Mount Tallac, Fallen Leaf Lake, 
Cascade Lake, and Emerald Bay, all within three or four 
miles of each other and of the Tallac House. These three 
exquisite little lakes (for Emerald Bay is also almost a lake), 
nestled closely against the loftiest peaks of the western sum- 
mit ridge, are all perfect examples of glacial lakes. 

South of Lake Tahoe, Lake Valley extends for fifteen 
miles as a plain, gently rising southward. At its lower end 
it is but a few feet above the lake surface, covered with 
glacial drift modified by water, and diversified, especially 
on its western side, by debris ridges, the moraines of glaciers 
which continued to flow into the valley or into the Lake long 
after the main glacier, of which they were once tributaries, 
had dried up. On approaching the south end of the Lake by 
steamer, I had observed these long ridges, divined their 
meaning, and determined on a closer acquaintance. While 
staying at the Tallac House I repeatedly visited them and 
explored the canyons down which their materials were 
brought. I proceed to describe them. 

Fallen Leaf Lake Glacier. Fallen Leaf Lake lies on the 
plain of Lake Valley, about one and a half miles from Lake 
Tahoe, its surface but a few feet above the level of the lat- 
ter Lake ^ ; but its bottom far, probably several hundred feet, 
below that level. It is about three to three and one-half 
miles long and one and one-fourth miles wide. From its 
upper end runs a canyon bordered on either side by the 
highest peaks in this region. The rocky walls of this can- 
yon terminate on the east side at the head of the lake, but 
on the west side, a little farther down. The lake is bor- 
dered on each side by an admirably marked debris ridge 
(moraine) three hundred feet high, four miles long, and one 
and one-half to two miles apart. These moraines may be 

1 Professor Price informs me there is a difference of eighty feet 
between the level of Lake Tahoe and Fallen Leaf Lake. 



90 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

traced back to the termination of the rocky ridges which 
bound the canyon. On one side the moraine lies wholly on 
the plain; on the other side its upper part lies against the 
slope of Mount Tallac. Near the lower end of the lake a 
somewhat obscure branch ridge comes off from each main 
ridge, and curving around it forms an imperfect terminal 
moraine through which the outlet of the lake breaks its way. 

On ascending the canyon the glaciation is very conspicu- 
ous, and becomes more and more beautiful at every step. 
From Glen Alpine Springs upward it is the most perfect I 
have ever seen. In some places the white rocky bottom of 
the canyon, for many miles in extent, is smooth and polished 
and gently undulating, like the surface of a glassy but bil- 
lowy sea. The glaciation is distinct also up the sides of 
t'he canyon lOOO feet above its floor. 

There can be no doubt, therefore, that a glacier once came 
down this canyon filling it lOOO feet deep, scooped out Fallen 
Leaf Lake just where it struck the plain and changed its 
angle of slope, and pushed its snout four miles out on the 
level plain, nearly to the present shores of Lake Tahoe, 
dropping its debris on either side and thus forming a bed 
for itself. In its subsequent retreat it seems to have rested 
its snout some time at the lower end of Fallen Leaf Lake, 
and accumulated there an imperfect terminal moraine. 

Cascade Lake Glacier. Cascade Lake, like Fallen Leaf 
Lake, is about one and one-half miles from Lake Tahoe, 
but, unlike Fallen Leaf Lake, its discharge creek has consid- 
erable fall, and the lake surface is, therefore, probably lOO 
feet above the level of the greater lake. On either side of 
this creek, from the very border of Lake Tahoe, runs a 
moraine ridge up to the lake, and thence along each side 
of the lake up to the rocky points which terminate the true 
mountain canyon above the head of the lake, I have never 
anywhere seen more perfectly defined moraines. I climbed 
over the larger western moraine and found that it is partly 
merged into the eastern moraine of Emerald Bay to form 
a medial at least 300 feet high, and of great breadth. From 
the surface of the little lake the curving branches of the 
main moraine, meeting below the lake to form a terminal 
moraine, are very distinct. At the head of the lake there 



GLACIAL HISTORY OF LAKE TAHOE 91 

is a perpendicular cliff over which the river precipitates it- 
self, forming a very pretty cascade of 100 feet or more. On 
ascending the canyon above the head of the lake, for several 
miles, I found, everywhere, over the lip of the precipice, over 
the whole floor of the canyon, and up the sides looo feet or 
more, the most perfect glaciation. 

There cannot, therefore, be the slightest doubt that this 
also is the pathway of a glacier which once ran into Lake 
Tahoe. After coming down its steep rocky bed, this gla- 
cier precipitated itself over the cliff, scooped out the lake at 
its foot, and then ran on until it bathed its snout in the 
waters of Lake Tahoe, and probably formed icebergs there. 
In its subsequent retreat it seems to have dropped more 
debris in its path and formed a more perfect terminal mo- 
raine than did Fallen Leaf Glacier. 

Emerald Bay Glacier. All that I have said of Fallen 
Leaf Lake and Cascade Lake apply, almost word for word, 
to Emerald Bay. This beautiful bay, almost a lake, has 
also been formed by a glacier. It also is bounded on either 
side by moraines, which run down to and even project into 
Lake Tahoe, and may be traced up to the rocky points which 
form the mouth of the canyon at the head of the bay. Its 
eastern moraine, as already stated, is partly merged into the 
western moraine of Cascade Lake, to form a huge medial 
moraine. Its western moraine lies partly against a rocky 
ridge which runs down to Lake Tahoe to form Rubicon 
Point. At the head of the bay, as at the head of Cascade 
Lake, there is a cliff about lOO feet high, over which the 
river precipitates itself and forms a beautiful cascade. Over 
the lip of this cliff, and in the bed of the canyon above, and 
up the sides of the cliff-like walls, lOOO feet or more, the 
most perfect glaciation is found. The only difference be- 
tween this glacier and the two preceding is, that it ran more 
deeply into the main lake and the deposits dropped in its 
retreat did not rise high enough to cut off its little rock 
basin from that lake, but exists now only as a shallow bar 
at the mouth of the bay. This bar consists of true moraine 
matter, i.e., intermingled bowlders and sand, which may be 
examined through the exquisitely transparent water almost 
as perfectly as if no water were present. 



92 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

All that I have described separately and in detail, and 
much more, may be taken in at one view from the top of 
Mount Tallac. From this peak nearly the whole course 
of these three glaciers, their fountain amphitheaters, their 
canyon beds, and their lakes enclosed between their moraine 
arms, may be seen at once. The view from this peak is 
certainly one of the finest that I have ever seen. Less 
grand and diversified in mountain forms than many from 
peaks above the Yosemite, it has added beauty of extensive 
water surface, and the added interest of several glacial 
pathways in a limited space. The observer sits on the very 
edge of the fountain amphitheaters still holding large 
masses of snow; immediately below, almost at his feet, lie 
glistening, gem-like, in dark. rocky setting, the three exquis- 
ite little lakes; on either side of these, embracing and pro- 
tecting them, stretch out the moraine arms, reaching toward 
and directing the eye to the great Lake, which lies, map-like, 
with all its sinuous outlines perfectly distinct, even to its 
extreme northern end, twenty-five to thirty miles away. 
As the eye sweeps again up the canyon-beds, little lakes, 
glacier scooped rock basins, filled with ice-cold water, flash 
in the sunlight on every side. Twelve or fifteen of these 
may be seen. 

From appropriate positions on the surface of Lake Tahoe, 
also, all the moraine ridges are beautifully seen at once, but 
the glacial lakes and the canyon-beds, of course, cannot be 
seen. 

There are several questions of a general nature suggested 
by my examination of these three glacial pathways, which 
I have thought best to consider separately. 

a. Evidences of the existence of the Great Lake Valley 
Glacier. On the south shore of Lake Tahoe, and especially 
at the northern or lower end of Fallen Leaf Lake, I found 
many pebbles and some large bowlders of a beautiful striped 
agate-like slate. The stripes consisted of alternate bands of 
black and translucent white, the latter weathering into milk- 
white, or yellowish, or reddish. It was perfectly evident 
that these fragments were brought down from the canyon 
above Fallen Leaf Lake. On ascending this canyon I 
easily found the parent rock of these pebbles and bowlders. 



GLACIAL HISTORY OF LAKE TAHOE 93 

It is a powerful outcropping ledge of beautifully striped 
siliceous slate, full of fissures and joints, and easily broken 
into blocks of all sizes, crossing the canyon about a half mile 
above the lake. This rock is so peculiar and so easily 
identified that its fragments become an admirable index of 
the extent of the glacial transportation. I have, myself, 
traced these pebbles only a little v^^ay along the w^estern 
shores of the great Lake, as my observations were principally 
confined to this part; but I learn from my brother, Profes- 
sor John LeConte, and from Mr John Muir, both of 
whom have examined the pebbles I have brought home, that 
precisely similar fragments are found in great abundance 
all along the western shore from Sugar Pine Point north- 
ward, and especially on the extreme northwestern shore 
nearly thirty miles from their source. I have visited the 
eastern shore of the Lake somewhat more extensively than 
the western, and nowhere did I see similar pebbles. Mr. 
Muir, who has walked around the Lake, tells me that they 
do not occur on the eastern shore. We have, then, in the 
distribution of these pebbles, demonstrative evidence of the 
fact that Fallen Leaf Lake glacier was once a tributary of 
a much greater glacier which filled Lake Tahoe. 

The only other agency to which we could attribute this 
transportation is that of shore ice and icebergs, which prob- 
ably did once exist on Lake Tahoe ; but the limitation of 
the pebbles to the western, and especially the northwestern 
shores, is in exact accordance with the laws of glacial trans- 
portation, but contrary to those of floating ice transporta- 
tion — for lake ice is carried only by winds, and would, 
therefore, deposit equally on all shores. 

Again: I think I find additional evidence of a Lake Ta- 
hoe " mer de glace " in the contrasted character of the nor- 
thern and southern shores of this Lake. 

All the little glacial lakes described above are deep at the 
upper end and shallow at the lower end. Further, all of 
them have a sand beach and a sand flat at the upper end, 
and great bowlders thickly scattered in the shallow water, 
and along the shore at the lower end. These facts are 
easily explained, if we remember that while the glacial 
scooping was principally at the upper end, the glacial 



94 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

droppings were principally at the lower end. And further: 
that while the glacial deposit was principally at the lower 
end, the river deposit, since the glacial epoch, has been 
wholly at the upper end. 

Now the great Lake, also, has a similar structure. It also 
has a beautiful sand and gravel beach all along its upper 
shore, and a sand flat extending above it; while at its lower, 
or northern end, thickly strewed in the shallow water, and 
along the shore line, and some distance above the shore line, 
are found in great abundance bowlders of enormous size. 
May we not conclude that similar effects have been pro- 
duced by similar causes — that these huge bowlders were 
dropped by the great glacier at its lower end? Similar 
bowlders are also found along the northern portion of the 
eastern shore, because the principal flow of the ice-current 
was from the southwest, and in the fulness of glacial times 
the principal exit was over the northeastern lip of the basin. 

b. Origin of Lake Tahoe. That Lake Tahoe was once 
wholly occupied by ice, I think, is certain; but that it was 
scooped out by the Lake Valley glacier is perhaps more 
doubtful. All other Sierra lakes which I have seen cer- 
tainly owe their origin to glacial agency. Neither do I 
think we should be staggered by the size or enormous depth 
of this Lake. Yet, from its position, it may be a plication- 
hollow, or a trough produced by the formation of two paral- 
lel mountain ridges, and afterward modified by glacial 
agency, instead of a pure glacial-scooped rock-basin. In 
other words, Lake Valley, with its two summit ridges, may 
be regarded as a phenomenon belonging to the order of 
mountain-formation and not to the order of mountain sculp- 
ture. I believe an examination of the rocks of the two sum- 
mit ridges would probably settle this. In the absence of 
more light than I now have, I will not hazard an opinion.^ 

c. Passage of slate into granite. From the commence- 
ment of the rocky canyon at the head of Fallen Leaf Lake, 
and up for about two miles, the canyon walls and bed are 
composed of slate. The slate, however, becomes more and 
more metamorphic as we go up, until it passes into what 

1 This question practically has been settled by Mr, Lindgren, 
and his conclusions are given in an earlier chapter. 



GLACIAL HISTORY OF LAKE TAHOE 95 

much resembles trap. In some places it looks like diorite 
and in others like porphyry. I saw no evidence, however, of 
any outburst. This latter rock passes somewhat more 
rapidly into granite at Glen Alpine Springs, From this 
point the canyon bed and lower walls are granite, but the 
highest peaks are still a dark, splintery, metamorphic slate. 
The glacial erosion has here cut through the slate and bit- 
ten deep into the underlying granite. The passage from 
slate through porphyritic diorite into granite may, I think, 
be best explained by the increasing degree of metamorphism, 
and at the same time a change of the original sediments at 
this point ; granite being the last term of metamorphism 
of pure clays, or clayey sandstones, while bedded diorites are 
similarly formed from ferruginous and calcareous slates. 
Just at the junction of the harder and tougher granite with 
the softer and more jointed slates, occur, as might be ex- 
pected, cascades in the river. It is probable that the cas- 
cades at the head of Cascade Lake and Emerald Bay mark, 
also, the junction of the granite with the slate — only the 
junction here is covered with debris. Just at the same junc- 
tion, in Fallen Leaf Lake Canyon (Glen Alpine Basin), 
burst out the waters of Glen Alpine Springs, highly charged 
with bicarbonates of iron and soda. 

d. Glacial Deltas. I have stated that the moraines of 
Cascade Lake and Emerald Bay glaciers run down to the 
margin of Lake Tahoe. An examination of this portion of 
the Lake shore shows that they run far into the Lake — that 
the Lake has been filled in, two or three miles, by glacial 
debris. On the eastern margin of Lake Tahoe, the water, 
close along the shore, is comparatively shallow, the shore 
rocky, and along the shore-line, above and below the water, 
are scattered great bowlders, probably dropped by the main 
glacier. But on the west margin of the Lake the shore- 
line is composed wholly of moraine matter, the water very 
deep close to shore, and the bottom composed of precisely 
similar moraine matter. In rowing along the shore, I 
found that the exquisite ultramarine blue of the deep water 
extends to within lOO to 150 feet of the shore-line. At 
this distance, the bottom could barely be seen. Judging 
from the experiments of my brother. Professor John Le 



96 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Conte, according to which a white object could be seen at 
a depth of 115 feet, I suppose the depth along the line of 
junction of the ultramarine blue and the emerald green 
water is at least 100 feet. The slope of the bottom is, 
therefore, nearly, or quite, 45 degrees. It seems, in fact, 
a direct continuation beneath the water of the moraine 
slope. The materials, also, which may be examined with 
ease through the wonderfully transparent water, are ex- 
actly the same as that composing the moraine, viz: earth, 
pebbles, and bowlders of all sizes, some of them of enormous 
dimensions. It seems almost certain that the margin of 
the great Lake Valley glacier^ and of the Lake itself when 
this glacier had melted and the tributaries first began to 
run into the Lake, was the series of rocky points at the head 
of the three little lakes, about three or four miles back from 
the present margin of the main Lake ; and that all lakeward 
from these points has been filled in and made land by the 
action of the three glaciers described. At that time Rubicon 
Point was a rocky promontory, projecting far into the Lake, 
beyond which was another wide bay, which has been simi- 
larly filled in by debris brought down by glaciers north of 
this point. The long moraines of these glaciers are plainly 
visible from the Lake surface; but I have not examined 
them. Thus, all the land, for three or four miles back 
from the Lake-margin, both north and south of Rubicon 
Point, is composed of confluent glacial deltas, and on these 
deltas the moraine ridges are the natural levee's of these ice- 
streams. 

e. Parallel Moraines. The moraines described above are 
peculiar and almost unique. Nowhere, except about Lake 
Tahoe and near Lake Mono, have I seen moraines in the 
form of parallel ridges lying on a level plain and terminat- 
ing abruptly without any signs of transverse connection 
{terminal moraine) at the lower end. Nor have I been able 
to find any description of similar moraines in other coun- 
tries. They are not terminal moraines, for the glacial path- 
way is open below. They are not lateral moraines, for 
these are borne on the glacier itself, or else stranded on the 
deep canyon sides. Neither do I think moraines of this 
kind would be formed by a glacier emerging from a steep 



GLACIAL HISTORY OF LAKE TAHOE 97 

narrow canyon and running out on a level plain ; for in 
such cases, as soon as the confinement of the bounding 
walls is removed, the ice stream spreads out into an ice lake. 
It does so as naturally and necessarily as does water under 
similar circumstances. The deposit would be nearly trans- 
verse to the direction of the motion, and, therefore, more 
or less crescentic. There must be something peculiar in 
the conditions under which these parallel ridges were 
formed. I believe the conditions were as described below. 

We have already given reason to think that the original 
margin of the Lake, in glacial times, was three or four 
miles back from the present margin, along the series of rocky 
points against which the ridges abut; and that all the flat 
plain thence to the present margin is made land. If so, 
then it is evident that at that time the three glaciers de- 
scribed ran far out into the Lake, until reaching deep water, 
where they formed icebergs. Under these conditions, it is 
plain that the pressure on this, the subaqueous portion of 
the glacial bed, would be small, and become less and less 
until it becomes nothing at the point where the icebergs 
float away. The pressure on the bed being small, not 
enough to overcome the cohesion of ice, there would be no 
spreading. A glacier running doivn a steep narrow canyon 
and out into the deep water, and forming icebergs at its 
point, would maintain its slender, tongue-like form, and 
drop its debris on each side, forming parallel ridges, and 
would not form a terminal moraine because the materials 
not dropped previously would be carried off by icebergs. 
In the subsequent retreat of such a glacier, imperfect ter- 
minal moraines might be formed higher up, where the water 
is not deep enough to form icebergs. It is probable, too, 
that since the melting of the great " mer de glace " and the 
formation of the Lake, the level of the water has gone down 
considerably, by the deepening of the Truckee Canyon out- 
let by means of erosion. Thus not only did the glaciers 
retreat from the Lake, but also the Lake from the glaciers. 

As already stated, similar parallel moraine ridges are 
formed by the glaciers which ran down the steep eastern 
slope of the Sierras, and out on the level plains of Mono. 
By far the most remarkable are those formed by Bloody 



98 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Canyon Glacier, described by me in a former paper. These 
moraines are six or seven miles long, 300 to 400 feet high, 
and the parallel crests not more than a mile asunder. 
There, also, as at Lake Tahoe, we find them terminating 
abruptly in the plain without any sign of terminal moraine. 
But higher up there are small, imperfect, transverse mo- 
raines, made during the subsequent retreat, behind which 
water has collected, forming lakes and marshes. But ob- 
serve: these moraines are also in the vicinity of a great 
lake; and we have abundant evidence, in very distinct ter- 
races described by Whitney ^ and observed by myself, that 
in glacial times the water stood at least six hundred feet 
above the present level. In fact, there can be no doubt 
that at that time the waters of Mono Lake (or a much 
greater body of water of which Mono is the remnant) 
washed against the bold rocky points from which the debris 
ridges start. The glaciers in this vicinityj therefore, must 
have run out into the water six or seven miles, and doubt- 
less formed icebergs at their point, and, therefore, formed 
there no terminal moraine. 

That the glaciers described about Lake Tahoe and Lake 
Mono ran out far into the water and formed icebergs I 
think is quite certain, and that parallel moraines open be- 
low are characteristic signs of such conditions I also think 
nearly certain. 

/. Glacial Erosion. My observations on glacial path- 
ways in the High Sierra, and especially about Lake Tahoe, 
have greatly modified my views as to the nature of glacial 
erosion. Writers on this subject seem to regard glacial ero- 
sion as mostly, if not wholly, a grinding and scoring; the 
debris of this erosion as rock-meal; the great bowlders, 
which are found in such immense quantities in the terminal 
deposit, as derived wholly from the crumbling cliffs above 
the glacial surface; the rounded bowlders, which are often 
the most numerous, as derived in precisely the same way, 
only they have been engulfed by crevasses, or between the 
sides of the glacier and the bounding wall, and thus car- 
ried between the moving ice and its rocky bed, as between 

1 Geological Survey of California, Vol. i, 451. 



GLACIAL HISTORY OF LAKE TAHOE 99 

the upper and nether millstone. In a word, all bowlders, 
whether angular or rounded, are supposed to owe their 
origin or separation and shaping to glacial agency. 

Now, if such be the true view of glacial erosion, evi- 
dently its effect in mountain sculpture must be small in- 
deed. Roches moutonnees are recognized by all as the most 
universal and characteristic sign of a glacial bed. Some- 
times these beds are only imperfect moutonnees, i.e., they 
are composed of broken angular surface with only the points 
and edges planed off. Now, moutonnees surfaces always, 
and especially angular surfaces with only points and edges 
beveled, show that the erosion by grinding has been only 
very superficial. They show that if the usual view of gla- 
cial erosion be correct, the great canyons, so far from be- 
ing formed, were only very slightly modified by glacial 
agency. But I am quite satisfied from my own observa- 
tions, that this is not the only nor the principal mode of 
glacial erosion. I am convinced that a glacier, by its enor- 
mous pressure and resistless onward movement, is constantly 
breaking off large blocks from its bed and bounding walls. 
Its erosion is not only a grinding and scoring, but also a 
crushing and breaking. It makes by its erosion not only 
rock-meal, but also large rock-chips. Thus, a glacier is con- 
stantly breaking off blocks and making angular sur- 
faces, and then grinding off the angles both of the frag- 
ments and the bed, and thus forming rounded bowlders and 
moutonnees surfaces. Its erosion is a constant process of 
alternate rough hewing and planing. If the rock be full of 
fissures, and the glacier deep and heavy, the rough hewing 
so predominates that the plane has only time to touch the 
corners a little before the rock is again broken and new 
angles formed. This is the case high up on the canyon 
walls, at the head of Cascade Lake and Emerald Bay, but 
also in the canyon beds wherever the slate is approached. 
If, on the other hand, the rock is very hard and solid, and 
the glacier be not very deep and heavy, the planing will 
predominate over the rough hewing, and a smooth, gentle 
billowy surface is the result. This is the case in the hard 
granite forming the beds of all the canyons high up, but 



loo THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

especially high up the canyon of Fallen Leaf Lake (Glen 
Alpine Basin), where the canyon spreads out and extensive 
but comparatively thin snow sheets have been at work. In 
some cases on the cliffs, subsequent disintegration of a gla- 
cier-polished surface may have given the appearance of an- 
gular surfaces with beveled corners; but, in other cases, in 
the bed of the canyon, and on elevated level places, where 
large loosened blocks could not be removed by water nor by 
gravity, I observed the same appearances, under conditions 
which forbid this explanation. Mr. Muir, also, in his 
Studies in the Sierra, gives many examples of undoubted 
rock-breaking by ancient glaciers. 

Angular blocks are mostly, therefore, the ruins of 
crumbling cliffs, borne on the surface of the glacier and de- 
posited at its foot. Many rounded bowlders also have a 
similar origin, having found their way to the bed of the 
glacier through crevasses, or along the sides of the glacier. 
But most of the rounded bowlders in the terminal deposit of 
great glaciers are fragments torn off by the glacier itself. 
The proportion of rounded bowlders — of upper or air- 
formed — to nether or glacier-formed fragments, depends on 
the depth and extent of the ice-current. In the case of the 
universal ice-sheet (ice-flood) there are, of course, no upper 
formed or angular blocks at all — there is nothing borne 
on the surface. The moraine, therefore, consists wholly of 
nether-formed and nether-borne severely triturated ma- 
terials {moraine profunde). The bowlders are, of course, 
all rounded. This is one extreme. In the case of the thin 
moving ice-fields, the glacierets which still linger among the 
highest peaks and shadiest hollows of the Sierra, on the other 
hand, the moraines are composed wholly of angular blocks. 
This is the character of the terminal moraine of Mount 
Lyell glacier. These glacierets are too thin and feeble and 
torpid to break off fragments — they can only bear away 
what falls on them. This is the other extreme. But in the 
case of ordinary glaciers — ice-streams — the bowlders of 
the terminal deposit are mixed; the angular or upper-formed 
predominating in the small existing glaciers of temperate 
climates, but the rounded or nether-formed greatly pre- 
dominating in the grand old glaciers of which we have been 



GLACIAL HISTORY OF LAKE TAHOE loi 

speaking. In the terminal deposits of these, especially in 
the materials pushed into the Lake, it is somewhat difficult 
to find a bowlder which has not been subjected to severe at- 
trition. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE LESSER LAKES OF THE TAHOE REGION AND HOW THEY 
WERE FORMED 

THIS Is not to be a description of the scores of Glacial 
Lakes found in the Tahoe region, but an answer to 
the questions so often asked about practically all of 
these lakes, as to their origin and continuance. 

Rich as our Sierras are in treasures none are more precious 
than these. They give one pleasing surprises, often when least 
expected. For while the tree-clusters, the mountain-peaks, 
and the glowing snow-banks throw themselves into our view 
by their elevated positions, the retiring lakes, secluded, mod- 
est, hide their beauty from us until we happen to climb up to, 
or above, them. 

From the higher summits how wonderfully they appear. 
Let the eye follow a fruitful branch of an apple, pear or peach. 
How the leaves, the stem, the fruit occur, in sure but irregular 
order. It is just so with the glacial lakes of the Sierras. 
They are the fruit of the streams that flow from the glacial 
fountains. They lie on rude and unexpected granite shelves, 

— as Le Conte Lake ; under the shadow of towering peaks, 

— as Gilmore Lake ; on bald glacier-gouged and polished 
tables, — as those of Desolation Valley ; embosomed in deep 
woods, — as Fallen Leaf, Heather and Cascade ; in the rocky 
recesses of sloping canyons, — as Susie, Lucile and the An- 
goras; hidden in secret recesses of giant granite walls, — 
as Eagle ; or sprawling in the open, — as Loon, Spider, etc. 

What a variety of sizes, shapes and characteristics they 
present. There are no two alike, yet they are nearly all 

102 



THE LESSER LAKES OF TAHOE REGION 103 

one in their attractive beauty, in the purity of their waters, 
and in the glory, majesty, sublimity and beauty mirrored 
on their placid faces. 

In poetic fashion, yet with scientific accuracy, John Muir 
thus describes their origin in his Mountains of California, 
a book every Tahoe lover should possess: 

When a mountain lake is born, — when, like a young eye, 
it first opens to the light, — it is an irregular, expression- 
less crescent, inclosed in banks of rock and ice, — bare, 
glaciated rock on the lower side, the rugged snout of a 
glacier on the upper. In this condition it remains for 
many a year, until at length, toward the end of some aus- 
picious cluster of seasons, the glacier recedes beyond the 
upper margin of the basin, leaving it open from shore to 
shore for the first time, thousands of years after its con- 
ception beneath the glacier that excavated its basin. The 
landscape, cold and bare, is reflected in its pure depths; the 
winds ruffle its glassy surface, and the sun thrills it with 
throbbing spangles, while its waves begin to lap and mur- 
mur around its leafless shores, — sun-spangles during the 
day and reflected stars at night its only flowers, the winds 
and the snow its only visitors. Meanwhile, the glacier 
continues to recede, and numerous rills, still younger than 
the lake itself, bring down glacier-mud, sand-grains, and 
pebbles, giving rise to margin-rings and plats of soil. To 
these fresh soil-beds come many a waiting plant. First, a 
hardy carex with arching leaves and a spike of brown flow- 
ers; then, as the seasons grow warmer, and the soil-beds 
deeper and wider, other sedges take their appointed places, 
and these are joined by blue gentians, daisies, dodecatheons, 
violets, honey-worts, and many a lowly moss. Shrubs also 
hasten in time to the new gardens, — kalmia with its glossy 
leaves and purple flowers, the arctic willow, making soft 
woven carpets, together with the healthy bryanthus and 
casiope, the fairest and dearest of them all. Insects now 
enrich the air, frogs pipe cheerily in the shallows, soon fol- 
lowed by the ouzel, which is the first bird to visit a glacier 
lake, as the sedge is the first of plants. 



I04 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

So the young lake grows in beauty, becoming more and 
more humanly lovable from century to century. Groves of 
aspen spring up, and hardy pines, and the hemlock spruce, 
until it is richly overshadowed and embowered. But while 
its shores are becoming enriched, the soil-beds creep out with 
incessant growth, contracting its area, while the lighter mud- 
particles deposited on the bottom cause it to grow shal- 
lower, until at length the last remnant of the lake vanishes, 
— closed forever in ripe and natural old age. And now its 
feeding-stream goes winding on without halting through the 
new gardens and groves that have taken its place. 

The length of the life of any lake depends ordinarily 
upon the capacity of its basin, as compared with the carry- 
ing power of the streams that flow into it, the character of 
the rocks over which these streams flow, and the relative 
position of the lake toward other lakes. In a series whose 
basins lie in the same canyon, and are fed by one and the 
same main stream, the uppermost will, of course, vanish 
first unless some other lake-filling agent comes in to modify 
the result; because at first it receives nearly all of the sedi- 
ments that the stream brings down, only the finest of the 
mud-particles being carried through the highest of the series 
to the next below. Then the next higher, and the next 
would be successively filled, and the lowest would be the 
last to vanish. But this simplicity as to duration is broken 
in upon in various ways, chiefly through the action of side- 
streams that enter the lower lakes direct. For, notwith- 
standing many of these side tributaries are quite short, and, 
during late summer, feeble, they all become powerful tor- 
rents in spring-time when the snow is melting, and carry not 
only sand and pine-needles, but large trunks and bowlders 
tons in weight, sweeping them down their steeply in- 
clined channels and into the lake basins with astounding 
energy. Many of these side affluents also have the advan- 
tage of access to the main lateral moraines of the vanished 
glacier that occupied the canyon, and upon these they draw 
for lake-filling material, while the main trunk stream flows 
mostly over clean glacier pavements, where but little mo- 
raine matter is ever left for them to carry. Thus a small 
rapid stream with abundance of loose transportable ma- 




TAMARACK AND ECHO LAKES 




CASCADE LAKE, NEAR THE AUTOMOBILE BOULEVARD, LAKE 

TAHOE 




MEMORIAL CROSS AT CONNER LAKE 



THE LESSER LAKES OF TAHOE REGION 105 

terial within its reach may fill up an extensive basin in a 
few centuries, while a large perennial trunk stream, flow- 
ing over clean, enduring pavements, though ordinarily a 
hundred times larger, may not fill a smaller basin in thou- 
sands of years. 

Many striking examples of these successive processes may 
be seen in the Tahoe region, as, for instance. Squaw Valley, 
which lies between the spurs of Squaw Peak and Granite 
Chief. This was undoubtedly scooped out by a glacier that 
came down from Squaw Peak and Granite Chief. The 
course of the ice-sheet was down to the Truckee River, 
When the glacier began to shrink it left its terminal moraine 
as a dam between the basin above and the river below. 
In due time, as the glacier finally receded to a mere bank of 
half-glacierized snow on the upper portions of the two peaks, 
the basin filled up with water and thus formed a lake. 
Slowly the sand and rocky debris from the peaks filled 
up the lake, and in the course of time a break was made 
in the moraine, so that the creek flowed over or through it 
and the lake ceased to exist, while the meadow came into 
existence. 



CHAPTER X 

DONNER LAKE AND ITS TRAGIC HISTORY 

CLOSELY allied to Lake Tahoe by its near prox- 
imity, its situation on the Emigrant Gap automo- 
bile road from Sacramento to Tahoe, and that it is 
seen from Mt. Rose, Mt. Watson, and many Tahoe peaks, 
is Donner Lake, — lake of tragic memories in the early day 
pioneer history of this region. 

It was in 1846 that James T. Reed, of Springfield, 111., 
determined to move to California. This land of promise 
was then a Mexican province, but Reed carefully and 
thoroughly had considered the question and had decided that, 
for his family's good, it was well to emigrate. He induced 
two other Illinois families to accompany him, those of George 
and Jacob Donner. Thursday, April 15th, 1846, the party 
started, full of high hopes for the future. The story of how 
they met with others bound for California or Oregon, at In- 
dependence, Mo., journeyed together over the plains and 
prairies to Fort Hall, where Lansford W. Hastings, either 
in person or by his " Open Letter," led part of the band to 
take his new road, which ultimated in dire tragedy, is well 
known. 

The Oregon division of the divided party took the right- 
hand trail, while the other took the left-hand to Fort 
Bridger. It is the experiences of this latter party with which 
we are concerned. Misfortune came to them thick and 
fast from this time on. The wagons were stalled in Weber 
Canyon and had to be hauled bodily up the steep cliffs to the 

106 



DONNER LAKE AND ITS HISTORY 107 

plateau above; some of their stock ran away, after heart- 
breaking struggles over the Salt Lake desert; mirages in- 
tensified their burning thirst by their disappointing lure; 
Indians threatened them, and finally, to add despair to their 
vi^retchedness, a quarrel arose in which Mr. Reed, in self- 
defence, killed one of the drivers, named Snyder. Reed was 
banished from the party under circumstances of unjustifiable 
severity which amounted to inhuman cruelty, and his wife 
and helpless children, the oldest of them, Virginia, only twelve 
years of age, had to take the rest of the journey without the 
presence of their natural protector. Food supplies began to 
give out, the snow fell earlier than usual and added to their 
difficulties, and before they reached the region of the Truckee 
River they were compelled to go on short rations. Then, 
under suspicious circumstances one of the party, Wolfinger, 
was lost, and though his wife was informed that he had 
been murdered by Indians, there was always a doubt in the 
minds of some as to whether that explanation were the true 
one. On the 19th of October, an advance guard that had 
gone on to California for food, returned, bringing seven mules 
ladened with flour and jerked beef. The story of this trip 
I have recounted more fully in the book Heroes of Cali- 
fornia. Without this additional food the party never could 
have survived. On the 22nd they crossed the Truckee 
River for the forty-ninth time. 

Heavy snow now began to intercept their weary way. 
They were finally compelled to take refuge in an abandoned 
cabin near the shore of what is now known as Donner Lake, 
and there, under circumstances of horror and terror that can 
never fully be comprehended and appreciated, the devoted 
men, women and children were imprisoned in the snow until 
the first relief party reached them, February 19th, with 
scant provisions, brought in at life's peril on snowshoes. A 
" Forlorn Hope " had tried to force its passage over the 



io8 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

snowy heights. Fifteen brave men and women determined 
to see if they could not win their way over and send back 
help. Out of the fifteen seven only survived and reached the 
Sacramento Valley, and they were compelled to sustain life 
by eating the flesh of those who had perished. 

The second relief party was organized by Mr. Reed, — the 
banished leader — and thirty-one of the party were still in 
camp at Donner Lake when he arrived, with nine stalwart 
men to help, on March ist. On the 3rd nine of them left, 
with seventeen of the starving emigrants, but they were 
caught in a fearful snow-storm as they crossed the summit, 
and ten miles below were compelled to go into camp. Their 
provisions gave out, Mrs. Graves died, leaving an emaciated 
babe in arms and three other children, one a five-year-old, 
who died the next da3% Isaac Donner died the third night. 
Reed and Greenwood, carrying Reed's two children, Mattie 
and James Jr., with one of the survivors who could walk, 
now struggled down the mountain in the hope that they could 
reach help to go back and finish the rescue work. These met 
Mr. Woodworth who organized the third relief party, of 
seven men, who returned to " Starved Camp," to find the 
survivors begging piteously for something to eat. This re- 
lief party divided into two parts — one to go over the sum- 
mit to give help to the needy there, the other to get the 
*' Starved Camp " remnant to safety. The first section 
succeeded in their mission of mercy and a few daj'^s later 
caught up with the other section from Starved Camp. 

Mr. C. F. McGlashan, formerly editor of the Truckee 
Republican, has written a graphic account, with great care 
and desire for accuracy, of the complete expedition, which 
gives the heart-rending story with completeness, and I ex- 
pect to publish ere long the personal story of Virginia Reed 
Murphy, who is still alive, one of the few survivors of the 
ill-fated party. 




THE STEAMER AT THE WHARF, TAIIOE TAVERN, LAKI. I MKH- 




I)()XN1:r lake, dN the AlTo^roniLE IIIGIIWAY FROM 
SACRAMENTO TO TRUCKEE AND LAKE TAHOE 




THE CANYON OF THE TRUCKEi: RIX'ER IN WINTER 




AUTOMOBILING ALONG THE TlCl UKEM jL'E TRUCKEE RITER, 
ON TIIE WAY TO LAKE TAHOE 



DONNER LAKE AND ITS HISTORY 109 

Through privations and hardships untold the survivors 
were ultimately enabled to reach Sutter's Fort, only to find 
the most vile and fearful stories set in circulation about 
them. Four separate relief parties were sent from Cali- 
fornia, and their adventures vi^ere almost as tragic as those 
of the sufferers they sought to help. Bret Harte, in his 
Gabriel Conroy, has told much — though in the exagger- 
ated and unjust form the stories w^ere first circulated — of 
the Donner tragedy, and it has been made the subject of 
much newspaper and other writing and discussion. 

An unusual trip that can be taken from Tahoe Tavern 
is down to the foot of Donner Lake and then, turning to 
the left, follow the old emigrant and stage-road. It has 
not been used for fifty years, but it is full of interest. 
There are many objects that remain to tell of its fascinating 
history. Over it came many who afterwards became pio- 
neers in hewing out this new land from the raw material of 
which lasting commonwealths are made. Turning south to 
Cold Stream, it passes by Summit Valley on to Starved 
Camp. The stumps of the trees cut down by the unfor- 
tunate pioneers are still standing. 

It was always a difficult road to negotiate, the divide be- 
tween Mt. Lincoln and Anderson Peak being over 7500 
feet high. But those heroes of 1848-49 made it, triumph- 
ing over every barrier and winning for themselves what 
Joaquin Miller so poetically has accorded them, where he 
declares that " the snow-clad Sierras are their everlasting 
monuments." 

This road is now, in places, almost obliterated. One 
section for three miles is grown up. Trees and chaparral 
cover it and hide it from the face of any but the most stu- 
diously observant. When the road that takes to the north 
of Donner Lake w-as built in 1861-62 and goes directly and 
on an easier grade by Emigrant Gap to Dutch Flat, this 



no THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

road by Cold Stream was totally abandoned. For years 
the county road officials have ignored its existence, and now 
it is as if it never had been, save for its memories and the 
fragments of wagons, broken and abandoned in the fierce 
conflict with stern Nature, and suggesting the heart-break 
and struggle the effort to reach California caused in those 
early days. 



CHAPTER XI 

LAKE TAHOE AND THE TRUCKEE RIVER 

AS is well known, the Truckee River is the only outlet 
to Lake Tahoe. This outlet is on the northwest side 
of the Lake, between Tahoe City and Tahoe Tav- 
ern, and is now entirely controlled by the concrete dam and 
head-gates referred to in the chapter on " Public uses of 
the Water of Lake Tahoe." 

When Fremont came down from Oregon in 1844, he 
named the river Salmon Trout River, from the excellent 
fish found therein, but the same year, according to Angel, 
in his History of Nevada, a party of twenty-three men, en- 
thused by the glowing accounts they had heard of Cali- 
fornia, left Council Bluffs, May 20th, crossed the plains 
in safety, and reached the Humboldt River. Here an In- 
dian, named Truckee, presented himself to them and of- 
fered to become their guide. After questioning him closely, 
they engaged him, and as they progressed, found that all 
his statements were verified. He soon became a great favor- 
ite among them, and when they reached the lower crossing 
of the river (now Wadsworth), they were so pleased by 
the pure water and the abundance of the fish to which he 
directed them, that they named the stream " Truckee " in 
his honor. 

This Capt. Truckee was the chief of the Paiutis, and the 
father of Winnemucca (sometimes known as Poito), and 
the grandfather of Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, long known 
in Boston and other eastern cities, where she lectured un- 

III 



112 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

der the patronage of Mrs, Horace Mann, Mrs. Ole Bull, 
Miss Longfellow, and other prominent women, as the 
Princess Sallie. When I first went to Nevada, over thirty- 
three years ago, I soon got to know her and her father, Win- 
nemucca, and met them constantly. 

Sarah always claimed that Truckee and Fremont were 
great friends and that it was the Pathfinder who named the 
river after her grandfather, but nowhere in his Report of 
the 1843—44 Expedition does he mention Truckee, and he 
called the river the " Salmon Trout River " ; and this name 
he retained both in the report and map published in his 
Memoirs of My Life, Vol. I only of which was issued by 
Belford, Clarke and Company, of Chicago, in 1887. 

Hence Sallie is undoubtedly mistaken in this regard. 
But on several points she is correct, and too great emphasis 
cannot be laid upon these facts. They are, I, that Truc- 
kee guided several emigrant parties, even as far as Sut- 
ter's Fort, California (where Sacramento, the Capital of 
the State, now stands) ; H, that he was always friendly, 
true and honest in his dealings with the whites; HI, that 
had the emigrants and settlers in Nevada treated him as 
honestly as he did them there would never have been any 
conflicts between the Paiutis and the whites; IV, that 
when the latter first came to the country he called coun- 
cils of his people and bade them welcome the newcomers 
with open arms. 

He died just as the wrongs inflicted upon the Paiutis 
were making them desperate and resolved on war. Though 
his son, Winnemucca, is well known never openly to have 
waged war agadnst the whites, it was thoroughly under- 
stood that secretly he favored it. But had his father lived 
and retained his health and power there is little doubt 
but that the open conflict would have been averted, and 
many precious human lives on both sides saved. 



LAKE TAHOE AND TRUCKEE RIVER 113 

The Truckee River has its rise in Lake Tahoe, flows 
northward and breaks through the Mount Pluto ridge in 
a narrow canyon, one thousand to two thousand feet in 
depth. While the canyon is narrow and its slopes, especially 
on the east, are rocky and steep, it is not exactly gorge-like, 
except for the space of a mile or so, a short distance below 
Tahoe. For twelve miles the river follows a northerly 
course, and it is then joined by Donner Creek flowing from 
Donner Lake. The united streams then turn eastward and 
take a course across the northern end of the gravelly flat of 
Martis Valley, in a channel two hundred to two-hundred- 
fifty feet below the level of the plain. At Boca it cuts 
through the eastern range with a canyon one thousand to 
three thousand five hundred feet in depth and emerges on 
the plains of Nevada between Verdi and Reno. It re- 
turns again to the north below Wadsworth, having run 
sixty-nine miles from Donner Creek, and then, flowing six- 
teen more miles, it discharges into Pyramid Lake. At Ta- 
hoe the river begins at an elevation of 6225 feet above 
sea level; at Pyramid the level is 4890 feet, thus giving 
the river a fall of 1335 feet in ninety-seven miles. 

The Truckee River receives a number of large tribu- 
taries; the principal ones being Little Truckee River and 
Prosser Creek, the former heading in Webber Lake, the 
latter in the main range of the Sierras, most of its sources 
lying in small lakes held in hollows and basins excavated 
by glaciers. 

Until it was contaminated by the refuse of civilization 
its waters were pure and healthful, but legal enactments 
have been necessary to protect the stream from sawdust and 
other pollutions. 

As elsewhere explained the Truckee River being the 
only outlet of Lake Tahoe, and therefore its natural outflow 
channel, together with the facts that its origin is in Cali- 



114 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

fornia and it then flows into Nevada, and. that part of Lake 
Tahoe is in each state, has helped complicate the solution 
of the question as to who is entitled to the surplus waters 
of the Lake. This is discussed somewhat in a later chap- 
ter devoted to the subject. 

It may be interesting to recall that in 1 900 Mr. A. W. 
Von Schmidt, President of the Lake Tahoe and San Fran- 
cisco Water Works, offered to sell to the City of San Fran- 
cisco certain rights to the water of Lake Tahoe, the dam 
at the outlet, contract for a deed to two and a half acres 
of land on which the outlet dam was constructed, a divert- 
ing dam in the Truckee River, a patent to the land (forty 
acres) on which this land stood, and the maps and surveys 
for a complete line conveying the water of Lake Tahoe to 
the city of the Golden Gate. He offered to construct this 
line, including a tunnel through the Sierra Nevadas, and 
deliver thirty million gallons of water daily, for $17,960,000. 
If a double line, or a hundred millions of gallons daily, 
were required, the price was to be correspondingly in- 
creased. 

This proposition aroused the people of Nevada, and R. L. 
Fulton, of Reno, Manager of the State Board of Trade, 
wrote to the San Francisco supervisors, calling attention to 
the facts that there was no surplus water from Tahoe during 
the irrigation season, for the water had been diverted by 
the farmers living along the Truckee River to their fields; 
that flouring-mills, smelting and reduction works, electric 
light plant and water-works at Reno, immense saw-mills, a 
furniture factory, box factory, water and electric-light 
works, railroad water-tanks, etc., at Truckee, half a dozen 
ice-ponds, producing over 200,000 tons of ice annually, saw- 
mills and marble-working mills at Essex ; planing-mills at 
Verdi, paper-mill at Floristan, and other similar plants. 



LAKE TAHOE AND TRUCKEE RIVER 115 

were totally dependent for their water supply upon the 
Truckee River. 

He also claimed (what was the well-known fact) that the 
Von Schmidt dam was burned out many years ago, and that 
Nevada would put up a tremendously stifiE fight to prevent 
any such diversion of Tahoe water as was contemplated. 
Needless to say the plan fell through. 



CHAPTER XII 

BY RAIL TO LAKE TAHOE 

LAKE TAHOE is fifteen miles from Truckee, which 
is one of the mountain stations on the main line 
of the Southern Pacific Railway (Central Route), 
two hundred and eight miles from San Francisco, thirty-five 
miles from Reno, Nevada, and five hundred and seventy- 
four miles from Ogden, Utah. By the San Joaquin Valley 
route via Sacramento, the distance to Los Angeles is five 
hundred and eighty miles, or by San Francisco and the 
Coast Line six hundred and ninety-two miles. 

During the summer season trains run frequently through, 
making Tahoe easily accessible. 

From the east the traveler comes over what is practically 
the long known and historic overland stage-road, over 
which so many thousands of gold-seekers and emigrants 
came in the days of California's gold excitement. Every 
mile has some story of pioneer bravery or heroism, of hair- 
breadth escape from hostile Indians or fortuitous deliver- 
ance from storm or disaster. It was over this route the 
pilgrims came who sought in Utah a land of freedom where 
they might follow their own peculiar conceptions of re- 
ligion and duty, untrammeled and uninterfered with by hos- 
tile onlookers and disbelievers. Here came the home-seekers 
of the earlier day, when California was still a province of 
Mexico; those who' had been lured by the glowing stories 
of the Land of the Sun Down Sea, where orange and lemon, 
vine and fig flourished and indicated the semi-tropic luxuri- 
ance and fruitfulness of the land. 

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TRUCKEE, CALIF., WHERE TRAVELERS TAKE TRAINS FOR 
LAKE TATIOE 




CROSSL\G THE TRUCKEE RI\ER NEAR DEER PARK STATION 








PLACERVILLE, EL DORADO CO., CALIFORNIA 









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VINEYARD ON THE AUTOMOBILE HIGHWAY BETWEEN 
PLy\CERVILLE AND LAKE TAHOE 



BY RAIL TO LAKE TAHOE 117 

From the west the railroad traverses, in the main, the 
continuation of this old overland road. After leaving the 
fertile valley of the Sacramento and rising into the glori- 
ous foot-hills of the Sierras, every roll of the billows of the 
mountains and canyons wedged in between is redolent of 
memories of the argonauts and emigrants. Yonder are 
Yuba, Dutch Flat, the North Fork, the South Fork (of 
the American River), Colfax, Gold Run, Midas, Blue 
Canyon, Emigrant Gap, Grass Valley, Michigan Bluff, 
Grizzly Gulch, Alpha, Omega, Eagle Bird, Red Dog, 
Chips Flat, Quaker Hill and You Bet. Can you not see 
these camps, alive with rough-handed, full-bearded, sun- 
browned, stalwart men, and hear the clang of hammer upon 
drill, the shock of the blast, the wheeling away and crash 
of waste rock as it is thrown over the dump pile? 

And then, as we look up and forward into the sea of 
mountain-waves into the heart of which we ride, who but 
Joaquin Miller can describe the scene? 

Here lifts the land of clouds ! Fierce mountain forms, 

Made white with everlasting snows, look down 

Through mists of many canyons, mighty storms 

That stretch from Autumn's purple drench and drown 

The yellow hem of Spring. Tall cedars frown 

Dark-brow'd, through banner'd clouds that stretch and stream 

Above the sea from snowy mountain crown. 

The heavens roll, and all things drift or seem 

To drift about and drive like some majestic dream. 

And it is in the very bosom of this majestic scenery that 
Lake Tahoe lies enshrined. Its entrancing beauty is such 
that we do not wonder that these triumphant monarchs of 
the " upper seas " cluster around it as if in reverent adora- 
tion, and that they wear their vestal virgin robes of purest 
white in token of the purity of their worship. 

Thoughts like these flood our hearts and minds as we 
reach Truckee, the point where we leave the Southern Pa- 
cific cars and change to those of the narrow-gauge Lake 



ii8 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Tahoe Railway and Transportation Company. After a 
brief wait, long enough to allow transfer of baggage, we 
leave, fromi the same station, for the fifteen miles' ride to 
Tahoe Tavern on the very edge of the Lake. 

This ride is itself romantic and beautiful. On the day 
trains observation cars are provided, and the hour is one 
of delightful, restful and enchanting scenes. The Truckee 
River is never out of sight and again and again it reminds 
one in its foaming speed of Joaquin Miller's expressive phrase: 

See where the cool white river runs. 

Before 1900 this ride used to be taken by stage, the rail- 
way having been built in that year. It is interesting here to 
note that the rails, the locomotives, the passenger and freight 
cars were all transported bodily across the Lake from Glen- 
brook, on the Nevada side. There they were in use for many 
years mainly for hauling logs and lumber to and from the 
mills on the summit, whence it was " flumed " to Carson City. 

In those days logging was carried on in the Truckee 
River Canyon and the visitor would often have the pleasure 
of seeing logs "shoot the chutes" into the river, by which they 
were floated to the mills at Truckee. Here is a picture: 

Tree, bush, and flower grow and blossom upon either side ; 
and a little bird, with a throat like a thrush, warbles a 
canticle of exquisite musical modulations, so to speak. But 
the most stirring sight of all is the system of logging car- 
ried on by the mill companies. "Look! Quick!" ejacu- 
lates the driver; and your gaze is directed to a monster log 
that comes furiously dashing from the summit down a chute 
a thousand feet in length with twice the ordinary speed of 
a locomotive. So rapid is its descent that it leaves a trail 
of smoke behind it, and sometimes kindles a fire among the 
slivers along its way. Ah! it strikes the water! In an in- 
stant there is an inverted Niagara in the air, resplendent 
with prismatic and transparent veils of spray.^ 

ijohn Vance Cheney in Lippincotfs. 



BY RAIL TO LAKE TAHOE 119 

The main portion of the canyon is walled in by abrupt 
acclivities, upon which majestic trees used to grow, but 
where now only the growth of the past twenty-five to fifty 
years is found, doing its best to hide the scars and wounds 
of the logging days. 

The river, issuing from the Lake above, dashes down its 
wild way in resistless freedom. It is a rapid, all but sav- 
age stream, widening occasionally into sheltered pools exceed- 
ingly dark and deep. The bowlders in its channel, and those 
crowding down into it from its farther bank, cause it to 
eddy and foam with fierce but becoming pride. 

A few miles from the Tavern we pass the scene of the 
Squaw Valley mining excitement where the two towns of 
Knoxville and Claraville arose as if by magic, tent cities 
of thousands of inhabitants, lured hither by a dream of gold, 
too soon to fade away, leaving nothing but distress behind. 

Deer Park station suggests the leaving point for that 
charmingly picturesque resort, snuggling in the heart of 
Bear Canyon. Now we pass the masses of tuffaceous brec- 
cia that " Pap " Church, the old stage-driver used to call 
the Devil's Pulpit, and the devil's this and that or the other, 
until many a traveler would wish they were all with the 
devil. 

This is a remnant of the vast mass of volcanic rock that 
in long ago prehistoric times was poured out in molten 
sheets over the region, and that formed the range we shall 
shortly see at the north end of the Lake — the Mount 
Pluto range. At some later period either earthquake con- 
vulsion started the break which ultimately eroded and dis- 
integrated into the great gorge through which the railway 
has brought us, or grinding glacier cut the pathway for us. 

Here, on the right, is a tiny swinging foot-bridge over the 
river. This is the beginning, the suggestion, for the vast 
suspension bridges that have allowed the world to cross the 



I20 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

great North River from New York to Brooklyn, and that 
span great rivers and gorges elsewhere in the world. Nay! 
scarcely the beginning. That you find further up and deeper 
down in the High Sierras and their shaded and wooded 
canyons, where wild vines throw their clinging tendrils 
across from one shore to another of foaming creeks, and 
gradually grow in girth and strength until they form bridges, 
over which chipmunks, squirrels, porcupines, 'coons, coy- 
otes, and finally mountain lions, bears, and even men cross 
with safety. There is the real origin of the suspension 
bridge. But this is a miniature, a model, a suggestion of the 
big bridges. It affords ready access to the house on the 
other side. In winter, however, the boards are taken up, 
as the heavy snows that fall and accumulate might wreck 
it. 

It is hard to realize that, a few months from now, when 
winter begins, this railroad must perforce cease its opera- 
tions. Snow falls, here, where the sun is now smiling so 
beneficently upon laughing meadows, dotted here and there 
with dainty flowers, to a depth of ten and even twenty 
feet. The mail — necessarily much reduced in, winter — is 
first of all carried in sleighs, then, as the snows deepen, on 
snow-sihoes, so that those who stay to preserve the " summer 
hotels " from winter's ravages may not feel entirely shut 
out from the living world beyond. 

But there is nothing that suggests snow now. We are 
enjoying the delights of a summer day or evening, and 
know that we are near our journey's end. Suddenly there 
is a long call of the whistle, a short curve, and if in the 
daytime, the Lake suddenly appears, or, if at night, the 
lights of the Tavern, and our rail journey is done. We are 
deposited in Fairyland, for whether it be day or evening, the 
Lake or the Tavern, our senses are thrilled and charmed 
by everything that appears. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE WISHBONE AUTOMOBILE ROUTE TO AND AROUND 
LAKE TAHOE 

THIS is the name given to the 260-mile automobile 
route to and from Lake Tahoe, going in from Sac- 
ramento over the w^orld-famed Emigrant Gap and 
Donner Lake road, around the western shore of Lake Tahoe, 
from Tahoe Tavern to Tallac, and thence back to Sacra- 
mento over the historic and picturesque Placerville road. 
While both of the two main arms of the " wishbone " 
carry the traveler over the Sierras, the roads are wonderfully 
different. On the Emigrant Gap arm the road seems to 
have been engineered somewhat after the Indian fashion, 
viz., to allow the wildest and most expansive outlooks, 
while the Placerville route is largely confined to the pictur- 
esque and beautiful canyon of the South Fork of the Ameri- 
can River. Both have honored histories and both are fas- 
cinating from the scenic standpoint and the difference in 
the two routes merely accentuates the charm of the trip, 
when compared with the new portion of the road, the con- 
necting link that binds them together and now makes pos- 
sible the ride around the lake shore. Experience has dem- 
onstrated, however, that it is better to make the circuit as 
herein outlined. 

A brief sketch of the history of the building of the Emi- 
grant Gap portion of this road cannot fail to be of interest. 

It was practically followed by a host of the emigrants who 
sought California during the great gold excitement of 

121 



122 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

1848-9. It was also one of the earliest routes used between 
Sacramento and the mines of the High Sierras. In 1849 it 
was established from Sacramento to Auburn, Grass Valley 
and Nevada City and to-day there is practically little devia- 
tion from the original route. In 1850 the mines on the 
Forest Hill Divide were discovered and a branch road from 
Auburn was built to that section. At Illinoistown (now 
Colfax) the road branched, one arm crossing the North 
Fork of the American River to Iowa Hill and other camps 
on that divide, while the main road continued up the 
Sierras to Gold Run, Dutch Flat and other points higher 
up. 

Until the Central Pacific Railway was built in the 
'sixties Illinoistown was the junction for the different 
Camps in Nevada County and the Bear River and Iowa 
Hill Divides. The population of these regions in those 
early days was much greater than at the present time, yet 
the demands of the modern automobile have so improved 
the roads that they are much superior to what the large 
population of those days enjoyed. 

In 1862 the California legislature authorized the super- 
visors of certain counties to call special elections to vote 
upon the question as to whether those counties should sub- 
scribe towards the building of the Central Pacific Railway, 
and to authorize them to issue bonds for the amounts 
they decided to expend. San Francisco county subscribed 
$1,000,000, Sacramento county $300,000 and Placer 
county $250,000. 

In 1863 the Railroad Company began its work of grad- 
ing the road bed at Sacramento, and yet, in 1865 it was only 
completed to Alta, a distance of 68 miles. At the same time 
it was making strenuous efforts to divert passenger and 
freight traffic for Virginia City and other Nevada points 
from the Placerville route. This had become possible be- 



THE WISHBONE AUTOMOBILE ROUTE 123 

cause of the fact that when the railway line was actually 
built as far as Newcastle the engineers realized that be- 
fore they could build the rest of their railroad they would 
need to construct a highway of easy grade, which would en- 
able them to haul the necessary supplies for constructing the 
tunnels, cuts and bridges. Accordingly a survey was made 
up to Truckee, over the Nevada line Into Reno and Vir- 
ginia City, securing the best possible grade for a wagon road, 
and this was rushed to a hasty completion. 

Naturally, they were anxious to gain all the paying traffic 
possible, and especially under the adverse conditions under 
which they were laboring. But, needless to say, this caused 
the fiercest hostility on the part of their competitors, laid 
them open to serious charges, which, later, were made, and 
that for a time threatened desperate consequences, as I 
will now proceed to relate. 

In the late fall of 1864 the Sacramento Valley Railroad 
(the rival of the Central Pacific) arranged to make a record 
trip from Freeport to Virginia City by the Placerville route. 
Though the officials endeavored to keep the matter secret, 
it leaked out and immediately the Central Pacific planned to 
circumvent their aim. They stationed relays along their 
own line to compete, and Nature and Fate seemed to come 
to their aid. A fierce storm arose the day before the start 
was to be made, and it fell heavier on the Placerville than 
on the other route. Though the drivers of each line did 
their utmost, feeling their own personal honor, as well as 
that of their company at stake, the heavy rains at Straw- 
berry arrested the Placerville stage and made further prog- 
ress impossible, while the other route was enabled to com- 
plete its trip on record time. Mr. L. L. Robinson, the 
Superintendent of the Sacramento Valley Railroad, who 
himself accompanied the stage, wired from Strawberry, 
" Heavy rains, heavy roads, slow time " — reluctant to own 



124 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

a possible defeat. But the Sacramento Union, the organ of 
the Central Pacific, came out the next morning with glow- 
ing accounts of the successful run of the stages over the 
Emigrant Gap route and ridiculed Mr. Robinson's telegram, 
ironically comparing it with Caesar's classic message to the 
Roman Senate : " Veni, Vidi, Vici." 

It was such struggles for local business as this that led 
the San Francisco Jlta California, a paper bitterly opposed to 
the Central Pacific, to denounce the railway, in 1866, as the 
" Dutch Flat Swindle." It claimed that the railway would 
never be built further than Alta and that it was built so 
far only for the purpose of controlling passenger and freight 
traffic over their wagon road to Virginia City and other 
Nevada points. Other San Francisco papers joined in the 
fight and so energetically was it conducted, and so powerful 
became the opposition that they actually prevailed upon the 
people of San Francisco to repudiate their contract to pur- 
chase a million dollars' worth of Central Pacific stock and 
compromise by practically making the railroad company a 
present of $600,000 (which had already been expended) pro- 
vided they would release the City and County from their 
pledge to raise the remaining $400,000. 

The folly of this action is now so apparent that it is hard 
to conceive how even political and civic jealousy or hatred 
could have been so blinded to self-interest. The Central 
Pacific engineers had undertaken one of the most difficult 
pieces of railway engineering in the world, and the finan- 
ciers of the company were having an equally desperate 
struggle. During the Civil War the finances of the na- 
tion were at a low ebb and money was exceedingly difficult 
to secure. Yet in spite of all obstacles the company had 
gone ahead in perfect good faith, and at that very time 
were hauling rails and track material from Alta, and soon 
from Cisco, to Truckee (then called Coburn Station on 




AUTOMOIULING ALONG THE TRrCKKE RIVKR 




OX THE AUTOAIOCILE ROULEN'ARD AROUXD LAKE TAIIDI 




ATLANTIC TO PACIFIC AUTOMOBILE PARTY, PREMIER TOUR, 
19 1 1, STOPPING AT TAHOE TAVERN 




Copyright 19 10, by Harold A. Parker. 

CASCADE LAKE AND MT. TALLAC 



THE WISHBONE AUTOMOBILE ROUTE 125 

the old Emigrant Gap road), and had actually built the 
railroad from Truckee down into Nevada and as far east 
as Wadsworth, or a little beyond, before the tunnel at Sum- 
mit was completed. 

Thus in storm and stress was this road born, and in the 
winter time of our day it is still a road of storm and stress, 
as are all of the roads over the High Sierras. It must be 
remembered that while the elevation at Sacramento is but 
thirty feet above sea level, at Summit it is 7018 feet, and 
even at Truckee, where the turn is made for Tahoe, it is 
5819 feet. Naturally such high altitudes receive consider- 
able snow, which render the roads impassable during the win- 
ter season. In 19 14 I went from Truckee to the Summit 
on the loth of June, and save for two or three patches of 
snow which were rapidly melting, there were no serious ob- 
stacles that any good motor could not overcome. 

FROM SACRAMENTO TO TAHOE ON THE EMIGRANT GAP AND 
DONNER LAKE ROUTE, 1 35 MILES 

From Sacramento the grade is easy and the country fairly 
open until Auburn is reached (35^^ miles.) The roads are 
excellent, the disintegrated granite affording local material 
close at hand for perfect road building. The Sierras 
stretch away to the east in gently ascending billows, covered 
over with richest verdure of native trees of every variety, 
and of the thousands of orchard trees that are making this 
region as famous for its fruits as it used to be for its mines. 
For from 1849 until the hydraulic mines were closed down 
by the anti-debris decision in the U. S. Supreme Court, this 
section and beyond was one of the richest gold mining re- 
gions of California, and historically, one of the greatest im- 
portance to the State. Such places as Auburn, Illinoistown 
(Colfax), Gold Run and Dutch Flat, were rich producing 
camps and branch roads reached to Yankee Jim, Todd's 



126 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Valley, Forest Hill, Michigan Bluffs, Bath, and other 
towns on what is known as the Forest Hill Divide, a di- . 
vide being a local term, to signify the rocky, mountainous 
mass, — nearly always having a level grade on its summit, — 
that separates two forks of the same stream, or two differ- 
ent streams. From Colfax another road led to Grass Val- 
ley, Nevada City, and North Bloomfield in Nevada County, 
and Iowa Hill, Wisconsin Hill, Monona Flat, and Damas- 
cus on the Iowa Hill Divide. All these were centers of rich 
mining districts which were scenes of the greatest activity 
in the days of their productivity. Now, however, most of 
them are abandoned, except Auburn, Colfax, and Nevada 
City which have other resources, and Grass Valley, which 
maintains its high standing owing to its rich quartz mines. 
Forest Hill, Iowa Hill, and Michigan Bluff have drift 
mines which maintain small and meager populations com- 
pared with those of the early and prosperous days. In the 
'fifties Yankee Jim and its tributary mines had a popu- 
lation of 3000, while to-day it is entirely deserted. Todd's 
Valley, which was also a flourishing camp has suffered the 
same fate. 

Auburn to Colfax 16 Miles, Colfax to Emigrant Gap, 30^ 
Miles. Leaving Auburn the road ascends more rapidly 
until Colfax (16 miles) is reached (elevation 2422 feet). 
Then ten miles further one is in the heart of the most ex- 
tensive hydraulic mining operations of California. Thou- 
sands of acres are passed which yet bear the scars of the 
" washing down " for the precious mineral hid away dur- 
ing the centuries until the Argonauts of '49 and later un- 
earthed it by their gigantic hydraulic nozzles. Millions of 
dollars were extracted from these placers, but now the vil- 
lages are deserted and all mining operations have ceased. The 
time is not far distant when automobile parties will arrange 
to stop over in one of these little places, and with a com- 



THE WISHBONE AUTOMOBILE ROUTE 127 

petent guide, go over the deserted placers. It is hard to 
realize that by the mere power of water mountains were 
washed away, leaving the denuded country on the one hand, 
a land of mounds and hummocks, like the Bad Lands in 
miniature, and on the other hand of masses of debris, too 
heavy to be washed away into the streams. 

The wildest portions of the Sierras are revealed in ascend- 
ing from Dutch Flat to the Summit. The snowsheds of the 
Southern Pacific Railway come into sight, perched like pe- 
culiar long black boxes, with peep-holes, along an impos- 
sible ledge of the massive granite cliffs, and the Sierran trees 
tower upright from every possible vantage ground in the 
granite beneath. 

At Towle, three miles beyond Dutch Flat, the shipping 
point is reached from which much of the material was 
hauled for the building of Lake Spaulding dam. Hundreds 
of teams were employed in this work, and the road showed 
an almost unbroken procession for months. This was in 
1912-13. A side trip to this remarkable dam, impounding 
the waters of the High Sierras for the generation of electric 
power to be used not only in the Sacramento Valley but 
in far away San Francisco, cannot fail to be of interest. 
The area of the Lake, with the dam at its present eleva- 
tion, is such as to justify the assertion that it is next to if 
not the largest artificial lake in the world. 

Emigrant Gap to Cisco, 14 Miles. — Fourteen miles from 
Towle, after enjoying the rich blue haze of Blue Canyon, the 
road passes through the natural Sierran pass at Emigrant Gap 
which gives its name to the route. Here one who has not 
been over the road before must not fail to note the follow- 
ing: As he passes through the Gap the massive granite wall 
towers in dominant power to the right and leads one to feel 
that miles of rugged peaks are there. Yet not more than a 
hundred yards farther on, the wall fades away, and if he 



128 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

stops here, and turns off the road slightly to the right, he 
will glimpse a vision of glory and sublimity that will take 
away his breath. Here, from a thousand or two thousand 
feet almost sheer above it, one gazes down to where in peace- 
ful repose lies Bear Valley, a rich emerald green meadow, 
on the right side of which flows the South Fork of the Yuba 
River, and on the left heads Bear Creek, which empties into 
the Sacramento at Marysville. Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes 
are always spent here by those who know of this delectable 
surprise, yet many come over the road unheeding and are 
never aware of what they have missed. 

Eight miles beyond Emigrant Gap, at Cisco, one sees a 
branch road which leads to the old Meadow Lake Mining 
District, which in the 'sixties had a population of several 
thousands. A large town was built there, which is now 
totally abandoned. 

Cisco to Summit, 13 Miles. At Summit a marvelous 
view is had in both directions, east and west. West- 
ward the fall of the Sierras into the Sacramento Valley 
is apparently so gentle and easy as to lead one to wonder 
that he has risen so high, but eastward the descent is much 
more steep and abrupt. The rude granite in many places 
is almost barren though Sierran trees abound. The grade 
is easy, and the new grade and tunnel under the Southern 
Pacific tracks makes an added improvement. Almost im- 
mediately on emerging from this tunnel the full glory of the 
eastern view is forced upon the attention. At one's feet, 
apparently, lies the placid surface of Donner Lake, its pure 
blue giving one a premonitory foretaste of the richer blues 
that await him at Tahoe, while beyond are the mountains 
that overlook the Great Basin of Nevada. 

Summit to Truckee, 1 1 Miles. Rapidly the road de- 
scends, well engineered and easy to negotiate to any responsi- 
ble driver, and before one is aware he is bowling along on 



THE WISHBONE AUTOMOBILE ROUTE 129 

the level Donner Boulevard, which is as perfect a piece of 
country road as can be found anywhere on earth. The 
Monument (not yet completed) erected by the Native Sons 
to the memory of the Donner Lake pioneers, and the Me- 
morial Cross, erected on the spot where the unhappy party 
camped, are passed and in a few minutes Truckee is reached. 
This was once the scene of great lumber activities but now 
much reduced, although it is the shipping point for Hobarts 
Mills, which is one of the largest lumber camps of the West. 

Here the road to Tahoe turns sharply to the south, and 
the fifteen miles run to the Tavern is made in the picturesque 
canyon of the Truckee River fully described in another 
chapter. 

The elevations are Sacramento, 32 feet; Auburn, 1 360; 
Colfax, 2422; Emigrant Gap, 5225; Cisco, 5940; Summit, 
7018; Truckee, 5819; Tahoe Tavern, 6240. 

FROM TAHOE TAVERN TO TALLAC 

On Tuesday, June 9, 19 14, I had the pleasure of making 
the first trip of the season over the new Tahoe Boulevard 
from Tahoe to Tallac. Let me here quote the account writ- 
ten at the time: 

It was a fine morning, clear and just cool enough to be 
pleasant, no wind, sun shining through the trees, the Lake 
glistening in its richest morning glory, the air like wine, birds 
singing everywhere, chipmunks chattering as they ran up and 
down the trees, and we as full of life as they, when we 
made the start. Our machine was a Chalmers 20, a first- 
class chauffeur at the wheel, with instructions to go slow, 
let us see all there was, and to run no risks if the winter's 
snows and storms had interfered with the safety of the road. 
We didn't even wear overcoats, though all the peaks were 
covered with snow. 

The first mile or two from the Tavern is through ave- 



I30 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

nues of second growth timber just tall enough to be delight- 
ful. In turn we passed many of the choice residences that 
are making Tahoe growingly popular as a summer home, and 
then crossed Ward Creek and Blackwood Creek. This lat- 
ter is one of the principal trout spawning streams of Tahoe, 
and to prevent fishermen from catching the fish that seek 
the stream at the spawning season the Fish Commissioners 
have placed a buoy out in the Lake, some twenty-five hundred 
feet away, within which bound it is illegal to catch -fish. 

While many trees have been logged from this region 
there are still enough to make it forest-like, and as the 
road winds and turns it affords glimpses and full views, 
sometimes for only a moment or two, and again for a minute 
or more, of the placid-faced blue Lake on the left, or the 
snowy mountain summits straight ahead or on the right. 
What rich contrasts of color, what revelations of majesty 
and sublimity each new turn affords! 

The first eight miles is fairly level road and close to the 
Lake, but eight miles out, just before reaching McKinney's, 
the new portion of the State Highway begins, and it has been 
engineered to give scenic and romantic effect all along the 
way. In road building no longer is it necessary to consider 
the cheapest and nearest way. " Give us the most scenic," 
cry the motorists, " we'll pay the bills and our machines will 
speedily eat up any extra distance we may be required to 
travel to obtain the best scenery of the country." From now 
on the whole trip is one of carefully engineered surprises 
and revelations. Colwell's Moana Villa, and Pomin's new 
and beautiful place are passed and then we ascend, and sud- 
denly Meek's Bay is revealed to us, a glorious symphony in 
blues, deepening and richening into pure amythest, with lines, 
patches and borders of emerald and lapis lazuli. Beyond 
rise hill-studded slopes leading the eye higher and higher un- 
til, anchored in a sky as blue as is the Lake below, are the 



THE WISHBONE AUTOMOBILE ROUTE 131 

snowy-white crowns of the Rubicon Peaks, with here and 
there a craggy mass protruding as though it were a Fran- 
ciscan's scalp surrounded by pure white hair. Up and down 
we glide, the soft purring of the motor as we run on the 
level changing to the chug-chugging of the up-pulls, or the 
grip of the brake as we descend. Every few feet new vistas 
of beauty are projected before us. The moving pictures 
are all exquisite. Indeed, after many studies of this incom- 
parable Lake Tahoe I verily believe there is no more beau- 
tiful spot on it than Meek's Bay seen from this road. 

To get its full charm we stop the machine for a while. 
Looking back we discover that the curve where we rest is 
a marvelous outlook point. We have ascended to a good 
height and look down upon the Lake. There are light blue, 
emerald green, deep blue in patches and in long irregularly 
shaped points. Here are Como, Maggiore, Lugano and 
Windermere all in one, though as yet free from the houses 
and artificial gardens on the slopes. But Nature such as 
this needs none of man's adornment to make it perfect. 

Starting the engine again we circle around the point and 
come immediately into another charming circlet of views. 
Between Meek's Bay and Rubicon Point is another little 
recess in the lakeshore, Grecian Bay, a good second to the 
one I have just described. Here we particularly notice the 
effect of the many varieties of trees, their dark trunks, 
branches and foliage set out almost in silhouette against the 
pure color of the Lake below. These elevated stretches of 
road are a constant joy and delight. They afford us glad 
surprises every few moments in such views of the Lake as 
we could not otherwise obtain. 

Crossing Lonely Gulch, watched over by the serene pure 
loveliness of the snowy peaks above, a good climb up a steep 
stretch of road brings us to the shoulder of Rubicon Point. 
Winding in and out, twining and twisting around and 



132 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

around, we reach Rubicon Park, from which place we get 
a perfect view of the whole Lake from one end to the other. 

To-day there are a score or more of fishermen out in 
their little boats, and strange to say, all of them near enough 
to be seen, are fishing in a patch of deep blue. The water 
there must be deeper than elsewhere, for there is where they 
invariably get their best catches. 

In marked contrast to the blue is a great finger of emer- 
ald thrust out from a nearby point, as if in warning not 
to dare pass its mysterious border. 

Now we come to the wild and rugged scenery. We are 
hemmed in on the right by towering crags and walls of 
massive gray rock. Shattered and seamed, scarred and dis- 
integrated, they look as though earthquake and lightning 
shock and the storms of a thousand years had battled with 
them. They give a new touch of grandeur and almost awe- 
some sublimity to the scene. 

For a mile or two we play at hide and seek with the Lake. 
It seems as though we were in the hands of a wizard. 
"Now you see it, now you don't." Query: "Where is 
the Lake?" Mountains, snowbanks, granite walls, trees 
galore, creeks flashing their white crests dashing down their 
stony courses toward the Lake, but only now and then do' 
we catch fleeting glimpses of it. All at once it bursts full 
and clear again upon our enraptured vision, but only to 
give us a full taste of its supernal beauty before we are 
whirled around a curve where the eye rests upon nothing 
but the rugged majesty of the Sierras. Change and con- 
trast, the picturesque, beautiful, delicate and exquisite in 
close touch and harmonious relationship with the majestic 
and the sublime. Travel the whole world over and nothing 
surpassing this can be found. 

Now we curve around high up above Emerald Bay, that 
small glacial Lake, the eastern terminal moraine of which 



THE WISHBONE AUTOMOBILE ROUTE 133 

was unfortunately torn through, so that the lake disappeared 
and became a bay of the great Lake itself. Every moment of 
this portion of the ride is a delight. The senses are kept 
keenly alert, for not only have we the Lake, the bay and 
the mountains, but part of the way we have flowers and 
shrubs by the thousands, bees and butterflies flit to and fro, 
and singing streams come foaming white from the snow- 
banks above, eager to reach the Lake. As our car-wheels 
dash across these streamlets they splash up the water on each 
side into sparkling diamonds and on every hand come up 
the sweet scents of growing, living things. Now Mt. Tal- 
lac, in all his serene majesty, looms ahead. Snow a hundred 
or more feet deep in places covers his rocky sides. Here we 
can see where glaciers were born in the early days when 
Tallac was several thousand feet higher than it now is. 

Below us is the emerald-ringed bay, wath its romantic 
little island at the west end, and nearby the joyously-shout- 
ing Eagle Creek as it plunges over the precipice and makes 
the foam-flecked Eagle Falls. Our road here was blasted 
through some fiercely solid and hostile rock. One boulder 
alone that stood in the way weighed (it was estimated by the 
engineers) from 800 to looo tons. Fifty cases of highly 
explosive powder were suitably placed all around it. Ex- 
cursion steamers took hundreds of people from all parts of 
the Lake to see the explosion, and at the proper moment, while 
everybody held his breath, the fuses were fired, the blasts 
took effect, the rock flew down to the level beneath, shat- 
tered into four great masses. A new El Capitan now rises 
above us, though it lacks the smooth unbroken dignity of 
the great Yosemite cliff, yet it is sublime in its sudden rise 
and vast height. Nestling at its feet is Eagle Lake, and 
beyond are the Velmas and a score of other glacial jewels 
calling for visitors to rhapsodize over their beauty. Mag- 
gie's Peaks are to our right, Eagle Falls to our left, with 



134 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Emerald Bay, the Island, the Point and the Lake beyond all 
calling upon us to enjoy them to the full. 

We decide to stay here for lunch, and under the shelter 
of a giant sugar pine a thousand years old, listening to the 
eternally buoyant song of Eagle Falls, we refresh ourselves 
with the good lunch put up for us at the Tavern. 

Again we push ahead and soon have our first adventure: 
The road gang was at work, and we did not expect to go 
much farther, but they assured us that, save for a few rough 
places here and there, which they would speedily correct, 
we need have no fear but that we could get through with 
ease. In a score of places, since we left the Tavern, we 
had crossed little streams of snow-water that had come 
tumbling down from the banks above. Suddenly we came 
to one with a larger volume than most of the others, and 
the road bed a little softer, so it had cut quite a deep little 
passage for itself. Easily our chauffeur dropped the front 
wheels into the cut, and to his surprise he found they stuck 
there. It did not take us long to jack up the wheels and 
put rocks underneath them, and we were about ready to 
get out when the road gang came along with a wagon and 
a pair of sturdy mules. As quickly as it takes me to tell it the 
mules were attached to our back axle and we were pulled 
out. A few more rocks and a couple of planks placed over 
the cut and we were honking on our way with triumph. 

Half a mile farther we came upon the ridge that sepa- 
rates Emerald Bay from Cascade Lake. Both are in clear 
view at the same time, while to the west we can hear the 
joyous song of Cascade Falls in its grand leap down from 
the foot of the snow-banks of Mt. Tallac into the tree-clad 
stream-course below. 

Now the road brings us almost directly above the Lake, 
with a rapid slope down, covered with dainty trees and 
shrubs of recent growth. From here we gain a fine view 



THE WISHBONE AUTOMOBILE ROUTE 135 

of the south end of the lakeshore. Tallac, the Grove, Bijou, 
Al Tahoe and clear across to Lakeside, with the deep green 
of the meadows above, and the snowy crowns of Freel's, 
Job's, and Job's sister, with Monument Peak combine to 
give the proper setting to the Lake. 

Soon we are racing across the level to the Fish Hatchery, 
between avenues of quaking aspens and young tamaracks 
and pines. Suddenly we come upon a mired car, the driver 
of which had just crossed the Sierras from Placerville, with 
little or no difficulty, but coming to a soft piece of road here 
when going a trifle faster than he should, and the side of 
the road having caught a lot of snow-water, he had bogged 
and was working like a beaver to extricate himself. We 
had a stout rope along and it was the work of two or three 
minutes to get him out and we again pushed forward, grati- 
fied and smiling at the warmly expressed thanks of himself 
and his three happy women-folks who were enjoying their 
first trip into the Tahoe country, and already confessing their 
complete subjection to its thrall. 

Passing the Hatchery we were only a few more minutes 
in reaching Tallac House, the first to complete the auto- 
trip this season. Except for a few short stretches of 
scarcely completed road it is in excellent condition, and the 
road gang now at work will have all the rough portions 
smoothed down in a few days. 

It should here be noted that side trips may be made in 
automobiles to Glen Alpine Springs and Fallen Leaf Lodge. 
Both resorts use their own automobile stages daily during 
the season, hence keep the roads in good condition. 

We maide the return trip from Tallac House to the Tav- 
ern in two hours exactly. The distance is 26 miles. The 
road gang had already put a bridge over the place that had 
delayed us on coming out, and the road throughout was 
easy and safe. Naturally it is not as easy to negotiate as a 



136 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

San Francisco boulevard, but with the wheel in the hands 
of a careful chauffeur there is perfect safety and a trip that 
need give not a moment's fear to the most timorous. 

FROM TALLAC TO SACRAMENTO, BY THE PLACERVILLE 
ROUTE, Io8 MILES 

This is practically the first historic route into California, 
for, as I have shown in the chapter on Fremont's Explora- 
tions, it was the one the Pathfinder practically followed on 
his memorable trip that led to the discovery of Lake Tahoe. 

Hence, when the gold excitement attracted its thousands 
to California, many of the argonauts took this road, follow- 
ing the Humboldt River and turning south at the Humboldt 
" Sink," crossing to the Carson " Sink " and then ascending 
to the headwaters of the Carson River, over into Hope Val- 
ley and thence down to Strawberry Valley and on to the 
mines. This was the origin of the road, and it was in 
steady and continuous use until the startling news of the 
discovery of the Comstock Lode in Virginia City aroused the 
mining world. From every camp in California rude and 
stalwart men eagerly set forth to reach the new Camp. It 
was a genuine stampede. The chief question was : " Will 
the new Camp make good ? " It answered this question by 
transcending the expectations of the most sanguine. Silver 
and gold were taken out in fabulous quantities. Chunks of 
almost pure native silver, weighing scores of pounds, were 
hewed out of the chambers where they were found, and men 
went wild with excitement. Houses sprang up over-night. 
A vast population soon clung to the slopes of Mt. Davidson. 
Mining and milling machinery was needed, and demanded 
with tremendous urgency, to reap the richer harvest. There 
was no railroad, and the old Emigrant Road was not in 
condition to meet the needs. Few people can realize the 
wild excitement that reigned and the string of teams, men 



THE WISHBONE AUTOMOBILE ROUTE 137 

riding on horseback, or afoot, stage-coaches, freight wagons, 
that poured in endless procession over the road. Nothing 
like it has been seen since, except during the Klondike rush. 
As soon, however, as it was possible to secure the proper 
authority newer and easier grades were surveyed and pri- 
vate individuals undertook to build certain sections of the 
road under the condition that they were to be granted the 
right to collect toll for so many years. These rights have 
long since lapsed, and the road is now a part of the excellent 
system of El Dorado County, which, though a mountain 
county, boasts some of the best roads in California. 

Tallac to Echo, iij^ Miles. Leaving Tallac, an easy and 
pleasant eight-mile run on almost level roads through Tallac 
Meadows brings one to Celios, once Myers' Station (6500 
feet). Now begins the upgrade, winding its way up the 
mountain side to the crest from which Starr King wrote his 
exquisite description, elsewhere quoted. This is one of the 
superb outlook-points where the full sweep of Lake and en- 
circling mountains is in full and complete view. 

After a few minutes for gazing the journey is resumed, 
soon crossing a bridge, near which stand the remnants of the 
old toll-house. On the right a foot-trail or bridle-path leads 
to Glen Alpine. A few miles of fairly rapid descent and 
Echo is reached, 49^^ miles from Placerville. 

The stream here, during the snow-melting season must 
be a dashing, roaring, sparkling mass of foam, for it is a 
bowlder-strewn rocky way, suggesting the wild stream it 
becomes when the snows melt and spring's freshets come. 

Echo to Strawberry, 7 Miles. The next mile and a half 
is a rapid descent, for elevation declines five hundred feet, 
ere we reach Phillips, near which, in Audrian Lake, is the 
chief source of the South Fork of the American River. 

The Water Company that controls the flow has here tam- 
pered with primitive physiography, in that it has cut a tun- 



138 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

nel or channel from the Echo Lakes, tapping their water 
supply and conveying it to Audrian Lake. Hence strictly 
speaking the Echo Lakes are now the headwaters of the 
South Fork. 

Scon we pass Hay Press Meadows, so called from the 
fact that hay was cut here in the old stage-coach days, baled 
with an old-fashioned press, and sold for $90 to $100 per 
ton, after being hauled to Virginia City. 

Down we go into Strawberry Valley, where 42^^ miles 
from Placerville, we reach Strawberry, at 5 700 feet elevation. 
This used to be a noted stopping-place in the olden days, 
sometimes the whole flat area being covered with loaded 
wagons bound for the mines. 

There is a rugged majesty about this Valley that has 
always made its impression on men. To the right is the 
southern end of the Crystal Range, and to the left the 
Yosemite-like cliff known as Lover's Leap, 6985 feet eleva- 
tion. As the station at Strawberry Is 5700 feet, this cliff is 
1285 feet in sheer ascent. Leading up it are strange col- 
umnar towers and structures of Egyptian appearance that 
remind us of those lines of Joaquin Miller's: 

Great massive rocks that near us lay, 
Deep nestled in the grass untrod 

By aught save wild beasts of the wood — - 

Great, massive, squared, and chisel'd stone, 
Like columns that had toppled down 
From temple dome or tower crown, 

Along some drifted, silent way 

Of desolate and desert town 

Built by the children of the Sun. 

We pass under the great cliff, and past a glacially-polished 
dome on the left. The cliff is all cross-hatched and seamed 
with infiltrations of quartz. Ahead of us to the right is a 
canyon that is the southern extension of Desolation Valley. 



THE WISHBONE AUTOMOBILE ROUTE 139 

Strawberry to Ky burgs, 10 Miles. A few miles below 
Strawberry we pass Georgetown Junction (where the road 
from Georgetown enters the main road), and ten miles 
brings us to Kyburgs, 4000 feet elevation, the canyon nar- 
rowing as we descend. On the right we pass Sugar Loaf 
(6500 feet). 

At Kyburgs the water is taken out for the domestic and 
irrigation water-supply of Placerville — 8000 inches of 
water. The station is located at a break in the mountains 
where a cone-shaped rock, covered with trees, is a striking 
feature. 

Kyburgs, Through Riverton, to Pacific House, 14 Miles. 
Passing the South Fork of the American on the left, nine 
and a half miles brings us to Riverton, a charming river 
resort where many visitors stop during the season for a day 
or a week, as this is a noted center for fishing and hunt- 
ing. Here we cross over an excellent bridge, surrounded 
by a mountain amphitheater lined with trees, and our road 
follows the course of the bowlder-strewn river-bed. Yonder 
is the scene of a noted " hold-up " in the old mining days. 

If we cared to go over the files of the newspapers of the 
days when bullion was being shipped daily by stage to Plac- 
erville, how many accounts might we not find of " hold-ups " 
by daring " road-agents." And it does not take much imag- 
ination to picture in this secluded spot or that, the sudden 
appearance of a masked bandit, gun in hand, and to hear 
the sharp quick commands, "Halt! and Hands up!" and 
to hear the " squeesch " of the brake on the wheel, to see 
the hands of driver, express-messenger, and passengers go up 
in helpless anger and furious impotence. 

Then the "Stand down here!" or "Come off of that 
quick, and line up alongside! " and the immediate obedience 
of all concerned, and the sharp " keep them hands up, gentle- 



I40 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

men, or somebody'll be gettin' hurt," or perhaps a fierce im- 
precation, if the bandit was less of the " Gentleman George " 
type than has so often been described. 

And what a scene it would make for an artist — the most 
indignant passenger of them all made to hold the hat and 
collect the " swag," as the alert-eyed bandit stands by, gun 
in hand, ready to shoot down the first person who makes any 
show of resistance! 

Then the permission given to get aboard, accompanied by 
the rude order : " Throw out that express-box, and drive 
on, and don't look this way or some one'U have a hole blown 
through the top of his head ! " and the mixture of dejection 
and relief shown in the faces of driver, messenger and pass- 
engers as the coach rolled on again. 

What a panorama of quickly acted scenes it must have 
been, and how often it occurred on this road! Not even 
history has recorded a half of the times it happened. 

Soon, almost hidden, in the dense foliage of the tree- 
lined slopes, we pass Esmeralda Fall, whose waters dash in 
foam over 60 feet, to unite with the river far beneath. 

As we near Pacific House, 4^ miles further on, we come 
to where the new road diverges a little from the old one. 
It used to descend to the river, but we preserve a fairly even 
grade, solidly built, wide and well kept. 

Pacific House to Placerville^ 18^ Miles. Then for a 
mile or so the road hangs over the yawning chasm of the 
river. It is wide and in fine condition so we dash along 
to where, on the up trip, the first glimpse is gained of the 
Crystal Range, its two chief peaks. Pyramid and Agassiz, 
dominating the landscape from this side as they do from 
Desolation Valley on the eastern side of the range. 

In nine more miles Camino is reached, through clusters 
of pines, with perfectly level stretches for speeding and — 
dreaming. One's mind unconsciously goes back to the old 



THE WISHBONE AUTOMOBILE ROUTE 141 

days and he sees as in a moving-picture film the " days of '49." 
For this road is a road of memories. One shuts his eyes 
and muses, and immediately there troops before him a rush- 
ing, bustling, hurrying throng. These were the modern 
argonauts, the seekers for the Golden Fleece: 

Great horny-handed men and tall; 
Men blown from many a barren land 

Beyond the sea; men red of hand, 

And men in love, and men in debt, 
Like David's men in battle set — 
And every man somehow a man. 

They push'd the mailed wood aside, 

They toss'd the forest like a toy, 
That grand forgotten race of men — 
The boldest band that vet has been 
Together since the Siege of Troy. 

Some carried packs on their backs, with pick and shovel, 
drill and pan. Others rode, leading their burden-bearing 
burros or mules. Wagon after wagon creaked along, laden 
to the full with supplies, food, or machinery. 

As we push along and come to the river, Joaquin Miller's 
words make the memory pictures for us; 

I look along each gaping gorge, 
I hear a thousand sounding strokes 

Like giants rending giant oaks, 

Or brawny Vulcan at his forge; 
I see pickaxes flash and shine; 
Hear great wheels whirling in a mine. 

Here winds a thick and yellow thread, 

A moss'd and silver stream instead; 
And trout that leap'd its riffled tide 
Have turn'd upon their sides and died. 

Below Camino we pass near to Pino Grande, where the 
great cable railway carries loaded cars of logs across the deep 
canyon of the American River. 

Rapidly we reach Smith's Flat, 4 miles, a famous mining- 
camp in the days gone by, but now consisting of a general 



142 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

store, a few houses, and a gnarled old log fashioned into a 
glorious water-trough fit for the Vikings. 

Three more miles and Placerville is reached, the quaint 
old reminder of " the days of '49, the days of old, the days 
of gold," when men flocked to California from all parts 
of the earth eager with the lust for gold. In those memor- 
able days it was called " Hangtown," a name some of its 
present-day citizens would fain forget, oblivious, in their own 
small-mindedness that they are neither responsible for its 
history nor its nomenclature. 

Built primarily in the somewhat shut-in walls of a small 
canyon, it winds and curves around in a happy-go-lucky 
fashion, and when the canyon widens out, spills over into 
irregular streets and up and down hills that were once clad 
with pines, firs, spruces and junipers. That wealth and 
prosperity have smiled upon it in late years is evidenced by 
its comfortable lawn-girdled homes, its thriving orchards, 
its active business streets, and its truly beautiful, because 
simple, chaste and dignified, county court-house. 

Placerville to Sacramento, 47 Miles. This is a well- 
known road, via Diamond Springs, 2^^ miles; El Dorado, 
6 miles; Shingle Springs, 11 miles, and Folsom, 25 miles. 

The elevation at Tallac is 6225 feet; at Echo, 7500 feet; 
Strawberry, 5700 feet; Kyburgs, 4000 feet; Riverton, 3300 
feet; Pacific House, 3400 feet; Sportsman's Hall, 3600 feet; 
Camino, 3000 feet; Smith's Flat, 2250 feet; Placerville, 
1830 feet; El Dorado, 1610 feet; Folsom, 198 feet, and 
Sacramento, 32 feet. 

A well equipped auto stage is run daily between Tallac 
House and Placerville. Experienced and careful drivers and 
first class cars only are used. They are owned by the Rich- 
ardson Garage, of Pasadena, Calif., long known to the exact- 
ing population of that city as a thoroughly reliable, prompt 
and efficient house. 



CHAPTER XIV 

TAHOE TAVERN 

SWINGING around to the south from the course of 
the Truckee River on to the Lake, the railway de- 
posits the traveler at Tahoe Tavern, preeminently the 
chief resort for those who demand luxurious comfort m all 
its varied manifestations. Yet at the outset let it be clearly 
understood that it is not a fashionable resort, in the sense 
that every one, men and women alike, must dress in fashion- 
able garb to be welcomed and made at home. It is a place of 
common sense and rational freedom. If one comes in from a 
hunting or fishing trip at dinner time, he is expected to enter 
the dining room as he is. If one has taken a walk in his 
white flannels he is as welcome to a dance in the Casino, the 
dining-room, or the social-hall as if he wore the most con- 
ventional evening dress. Indeed, visitors are urged to bring 
their old clothes that they may indulge to the full their pen- 
chants for mountain-climbing, riding, rowing, fishing, horse- 
back-riding, botanizing in the woods, or any other out-of- 
door occupation where old clothes are the only suitable ones. 

The building itself is completely embowered in pine, cedar, 
spruce and firs of differing ages, sizes and qualities of color. 
Though far enough from the Lake to allow of a large un- 
trimmed grass-plot where innumerable swing seats, reclining 
chairs, " lazy rests," etc., invite to lounging and loafing, the 
trees have been so trimmed out as to give exquisite glimpses 
of the dazzling blue of the water from every hand. 

143 



144 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

The Tavern is especially appropriate to its surroundings. 
It is three full stories high, with many gables relieving the 
regularity of the roof, which is steep-pitched, to throw off the 
winter's snows. The whole structure is covered with 
shingles, stained or oiled to a dark brown, and as climbing 
and clinging vines have wreathed themselves about every 
corner, and up many posts of the veranda, and there is a 
wealth of cultivated wild flowers banked up in beds around 
it, nothing could be more pleasing and harmonious. Roads, 
walks and trails radiate from the Tavern in all directions, 
except directly across the Lake, and numerous boats and 
launches make this as accessible as any other direction. Near 
enough to be interesting is the wharf, with its daily bustle 
of the arrival and departure of trains, launches and steamers. 

For all the indoor sports a Casino has been erected, far 
enough away so that the music, dancing, the sharp clangor 
of bowling, the singing of extemporized glee-clubs, and the 
enthusiasm of audiences at amateur theatricals and the like 
do not disturb the peaceful slumbers of those who retire 
early. While Tahoe Tavern itself is sui generis in that it 
is the most wonderful combination of primitive simplicity 
with twentieth century luxury, the Casino is even more re- 
markable. Its interior finish is the work of a nature artist. 
Its porches immediately overlook the Lake, and when one 
has wearied of dancing there is a witchery as rare and subtle 
as it is delightful to sit in the subdued light overlooking 
the ripples of the moonlit water, sipping some liquid refresh- 
ment, eating an ice or chatting with a suitable partner. 

Here a fine orchestra discourses sweet music, moving pic- 
tures are regularly shown, lectures and concerts occasionally 
provided, besides all the conveniences for private card-parties 
and other pleasures that fashionable visitors expect for their 
entertainment. 

Ruskin has somewhere brought out the idea in his finest 




bALLKOOM IN Tlib LAbiiNU, TAHOE TA\'ERN 




TAIIOE TAVERN FROM LAKE TAHOE 



TAHOE TAVERN 145 

phraseology that nowhere can man so readily worship God 
as in the presence of the most beautiful of His works in 
Nature. This is readily apparent at Tahoe, hence the sum- 
mer visitors and others of religious trend will delight to 
learn that churches for both Catholic and Episcopal worship- 
ers have been erected not far from the Tavern. The 
Catholic Church was dedicated Sept. 10, 191 1. It has a 
seating capacity of a hundred and seventy-five. Its location 
was chosen with an eye to the beautiful, being on Tahoe 
Heights, and is less than fifteen minutes' walk from the 
Tavern. 

The Episcopal " Church of the Transfiguration " is unique 
in that it is an open air building, the altar only being roofed. 
Towering pines stand as aisles and the vaulted ceiling is the 
clear blue dome of heaven. Rustic and simple, it harmonizes 
exquisitely with its surroundings, and strangely insensible 
must that worshiper be who, as he kneels in this Nature 
shrine, and the organ peals forth its solemn notes, with a 
wonderful accompaniment of hundreds of singing birds, and 
the ascending incense of a thousand flowers, does not feel 
his own soul lifted into a higher and more spiritual mental 
frame. 

One of the chief troubles about a hotel like Tahoe Tavern 
is that it is too tempting, too luxurious, too seductive to the 
senses. The cool, delicious breezes from the Lake make the 
nights heavenly for sleep. With Sancho Panza we cry 
aloud : " Blessed be the man that invented sleep," and we 
add : " Blessed be the man that invented cool nights to 
sleep in." And I have no fault to find with the full in- 
dulgence in sleep. It is good for the weary man or woman. 
It is well to make up arrears, to pay oneself the accumulated 
debts of insomnia and tossing and restlessness with an abun- 
dance of calm, dreamless, restful sleep. Nay, not only would 
I have men claim their arrearage, but lay in a surplus stock 



146 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

against future emergencies, future drafts upon their bank 
account of " restorer." 

Nor would I find any fault with the allurements of the 
Lake, either for swimming, boating, " launching," canoeing 
or fishing. Indulge them all to your heart's desire and you 
will not only be none the worse, but immeasurably better for 
every hour of yielding. A plunge every morning is stimulat- 
ing, invigorating and jolly. It clears the brain, sets the blood 
racing up and down one's spine, arms, fingers, legs and toes, 
and sweeps the cobwebs out of the brain. A row is equally 
good. It pulls on the muscles of the lower back, as well 
as the arms, chest and shoulders. It drives away Bright's 
disease and banishes asthma and lung trouble. It makes one 
breathe deep and long and strong, and when inbreathing, one 
can take in power from Tahoe's waters, forests, mountains 
and snow-fields. It means a purifying of the blood, a clear- 
ing of the brain, a sending of a fuller supply of gastric juices 
to the stomach, of digestive sauces to the palate, and a cor- 
responding stimulus to the whole body, which now responds 
with vim, energy, buoyancy and exuberance to all calls made 
upon it by the spirit. 

So with walking through the woods, by the Lake, along 
the River Trail, up the mountains. The results are the 
same until the man who hates and despises the poets shouts 
out with glee and exclaims: "Them's my sentiments!" 
when you throw out with fervor such lines as : 

Oh! the wild joys of living! the leaping from rock up to rock, 
The strong rending of boughs from the fir-tree, the cool silver 

shock 
Of the plunge in a pool's living water. . . . 
How good is man's life, the mere living! how fit to employ 
All the heart and the soul and the senses forever in joy! 

While all the conventional amusements are provided at 
Tahoe Tavern a large number of the guests, like myself, find 



TAHOE TAVERN 147 

much pleasure in feeding and making friends with the chip- 
munks, which have been so fostered and befriended that 
there are scores of them, most of them so fearless as to climb 
into the laps, eat from the hands, run over the shoulders, and 
even explore the pockets of those who bring nuts and other 
dainties for their delectation. Children and adults, even 
gray-haired grandpas and grandmas, love these tiny morsels 
of animation, with their quick, active, nervous movements, 
their simulations of fear and their sudden bursts of half- 
timorous confidence. With big black eyes, how they squat 
and watch, or stand, immovable on their hind legs, their little 
forepaws held as if in petition, solemnly, seriously, steadily 
watch, watch, watching, until they are satisfied either that you 
are all right, or are to be shunned. For, with a whisk of the 
tail, they either dart towards you, or run in the other direc- 
tion and hide in the brush, climb with amazing speed up a 
tree, or rush into their holes in the ground. 

Some of them are such babies that they cannot be many 
months old, and they feel the friendly atmosphere into which 
they have been born. And it is an interesting sight to see a 
keen, stern, active business man from " the city " saunter with 
his wife after lunch or dinner, sit down on the steps leading 
down to the water's edge, or on a tree stump, or squat down 
on his haunches an3rwhere on the walk, the lawn, or the 
veranda, fish some nuts out of his pocket and begin to squeak 
with his lips to attract the chipmunks. Sometimes it is a 
learned advocate of the law, or a banker, or a wine-merchant, 
or the manager of a large commission-house. It seems to 
make no difference. The " chips " catch them all, and every 
one delights in making friends with them. 

Here is a tiny little chap, watching me as I loll on the 
stairs. His black, twinkling eye fixes itself on me. He 
is making sure. Suddenly he darts toward my outstretched 
fingers where a peanut is securely held. He seizes it with 



148 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

his sharp teeth, but I hold on. Then with his little paws 
he presses and pushes, while he hangs on to the nut with 
a grip that will not be denied. If he doesn't get it all, he 
succeeds in snapping off a piece and then, either darting off, 
with a quick whisk of his tail, to enjoy It in his chosen seclu- 
sion, or, squatting down on his hind legs, he holds the de- 
licious morsel between his fore-paws and chews away with a 
rapidity as astonishing as it is interesting and amusing. 

Now a fat old fellow — he looks like a grandpa in age 
— comes up. He is equally suspicious at first, takes his 
preliminary reconnaissance, darts forward and just about 
reaches you, when he darts away again. Only for a mo- 
ment however. On he comes, seizes the nut, and eats it 
then and there, or darts off with inconceivable rapidity, up 
the tree trunk to a branch twenty, forty feet up, and then 
sits in most cunning and cute posture, but in just as big a 
hurry and in equally excitable fashion to eat his lunch as if 
he were within reach. 

Sometimes half a. dozen or more of them, big and little, 
will surround you. One leaps upon your knee, another 
comes into your lap, while another runs all over your back 
and shoulders. Now and again two aim at the same time 
for the same nut, amd then, look out. They are selfish little 
beggars and there is an immense amount of human nature in 
such tiny creatures. The bigger one wants the morsel and 
chases the smaller one away, and he is so mad about it and 
gets so in earnest that sometimes he chases the other fellow 
so far that he forgets what it was all about. He loses the 
nut himself, but, anyhow, he has prevented the other fellow 
from getting it. How truly human! 

Then the younger one, or the smaller one, or the older 
one, will whisk himself up a tree, perch on a branch and 
begin to scold, or he climbs to the top of a stump, or a rock, 



TAHOE TAVERN 149 

or merely stands upright without any foreign aid, and how he 
can "Chip, chip, chip, chip!" His piercing little shriek 
makes many a stranger to his voice and ways wonder what 
little bird it is that has so harsh a cry, and he keeps at it so 
persistently that again you say, How human! and you won- 
der whether it is husband scolding wife, or wife husband, or 
— any of the thousand and one persons who, because they 
have the power, use it as a right to scold the other thousand 
and one poor creatures who have to submit, or think they 
have (which is pretty much the same thing). 

These proceedings at Tahoe Tavern are diversified by the 
presence of a friendly bluejay. He is one of the smartest 
birds in the world. Some relation, no doubt, to the bird 
told of by Mark Twain in his Tramp Abroad. This bluejay 
has watched the visitors and the chipmunks until he has be- 
come extra wise. He has noticed that the latter toil not 
neither do they spin and yet neither Solomon Levi nor Kelly 
feed more sumptuously or more often than do they, simply 
because they have succeeded in beguiling the hearts of the 
guests who are so bored with each other that association with 
the " lower " animals is a great relief. So he has started 
the " friendly chipmunk " role. He stifles his raucous cry, 
he puts on a shy, timid and yet friendly demeanor. He 
flies conveniently near, and gives forth a gentle note, asking, 
please, your kind and favorable attention to the fact that he 
is a bluejay. As soon as he sees your eye upon him, he hops 
a little nearer; not too near, however, either to mislead you 
or to put himself in your hands, but just near enough to 
tempt you to try to tempt him. You hold out a nut, and 
then, with a quick dart and a sharp peck with a bill trained 
to certain and sure work, your thumb and finger lose that 
which they held, and Mr. Bluejay is eating it in perfect 
security well beyond your reach. Oh, he is a fascinating 



150 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

creature is this bunch of beautiful blue feathers decorating 
the harshest voice of all birddom in the region of Lake 
Tahoe. 

But birds, squirrels, flowers, scenery, sports, worship, fine 
music, the best kind of food, " air the angel's breathe," and 
sleep recuperative enough to revivify the old and decrepit, 
fishing, rowing, swimming and the like are not all that 
need fill one's days at Tahoe Tavern. 

Hike ^ out, afoot or horseback. Take the trails. Get 
Bob Watson, or one of his under-studies, to pilot you to 
Watson Peak and lake, go to Ellis, Squaw or a score of other 
peaks, visit the various Sierran lakes, or take a camping out 
or hunting trip to Hell Hole, the Yosemite, or any one of 
the scenic spots, one, two, five, or ten days away. Then, 
my word for it, you will return home " a new man," life 
will put on a new meaning, and sensations long since lost 
will come back with unthought of force, for you will have 
" regained your youth " — that dream of the old of all the 
ages. 

There are a number of interesting walks, drives and auto- 
mobile trips which may be taken from the Tavern, besides 
the lakeshore walks which are always interesting. Indian 
Camp is half a mile away; Tahoe City, a little further, and 
here the interesting Fremont howitzer, to whose history I 
have devoted a separate chapter, may be seen ; Tavern Spring, 
a beautiful walk through the woods, one and a quarter miles ; 
the Fish Hatchery, a mile away, where all the processes of 
hatching various kinds of trout before they are distributed 
to the different lakes and streams may be witnessed. 

To those who prefer longer walks, or horseback rides, 

1 This word, slang or not, is finely expressive, and is already 
fully established in the accepted nomenclature of mountain climb- 
ers. 



TAHOE TAVERN 151 

there are the Logging Camp, three and a third miles; Idle- 
wyld, four miles; Stanford Rock, five miles; Ward Peak, 
six miles; Blackwood Creek Dairy, six miles; Carnelian 
Bay, six miles; and Twin Peaks, seven miles. Several of 
these interesting places can be reached also by automobile. 

An especially delightful walk or horseback ride is by the 
Truckee River Trail to Deer Park Inn, six and a half miles, 
and thence two miles farther to Five Lakes, near which the 
waters divide, one stream flowing into the Rubicon, thence 
into the Sacramento and out by the Golden Gate into the 
Pacific Ocean; the other by Bear Creek into the Truckee 
River, thence into Pyramid Lake in the heart of the Nevada 
desert. 

Automobile trips from the Tavern are numerous, depend- 
ing entirely upon the length of time one can give to them. 
Chief of all is the Tahoe Boulevard trip around the Lake 
to Tallac, and thence on by Lakeside and by Cave Rock to 
Glenbrook, a distance of fifty miles. Hobart Lumber Mills, 
twenty-two miles, are well worth a visit to those who have 
never seen modern methods of making lumber; Independ- 
ence Lake, thirty miles, is easily reached in two hours, and 
it is one of the charming spots of the High Sierras; Webber 
Lake, forty-three miles, is another exquisite beauty spot, 
where there is an excellent Country Club House. Reno is 
reached by three routes, all of them interesting, and each 
well worth traveling over. An excellent trip is to leave the 
Tavern after breakfast, ride on the Tahoe Boulevard to 
Glenbrook for lunch, then over to Carson City, where a brief 
visit can be made at the Capital of the State of Nevada, 
the Indian School and the prehistoric foot-prints, that for 
years have been the wonder of the scientists of the world. 
Then on to Reno, where at the Riverside Hotel, mine host 
Gosse, one of the noted figures of the hotel world of the 



152 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

West, will accord a hearty welcome. Next morning Pyramid 
Lake can be visited and the return to the Tavern made by 
way of Truckee. 

For those who enjoy motor-boating on the Lake excellent 
provision is made. The Lake Tahoe Railway and Trans- 
portation Company own several steam and gasoline launches, 
with varied capacities, — from six to two hundred and fifty 
passengers — full particulars of which can always be ob- 
tained. 

Fishing boats in large numbers are to be had either with 
or without oarsmen, together with full equipment for fish- 
ing or hunting trips. 

The Tavern stables are prepared to supply all reasonable 
demands for saddle-horses, driving-teams, and pack-animals 
for hunting trips, and arrangements can be made for equip- 
ment and guides for mountain trips, of any duration, from a 
couple of days to three months or more. There is also a 
garage with first class cars and experienced chauffeurs for hire. 




LADIES' LOUNGING ROOM, THE CASINO, TAHOE TAVERN 




THE FRONT OF TAHOE TAVERN FROM A TABLE IN THE 
DINING-ROOM 




BATHING IN LAKE TAHOE, NEAR TAHOE TAVERN 



CHAPTER XV 

TRAIL TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION 

TO nature-lovers, more or less active, the trails all 
around and about Lake Tahoe are a source of 
perpetual surprise and delight. I know of no 
region in California that possesses such a w^ealth of trails — 
not even the Yosemite or Mt. Shasta regions. The Lake is 
an ever-present friend. From ridges, peaks, summits and 
passes, near at hand or scores of miles aw^ay, it never fails 
to satisfy the eye. Again and again, vi^hen one is least ex- 
pecting it, a turn in the trail, or a fev^^ steps forward or back- 
ward on a summit ridge brings it into sight, and its pure 
blue surface, now seen smooth and glossy as a mirror, again 
shining in pearly brilliancy in the sun, or gently rippled by a 
calm morning or evening zephyr, or tossed into white caps 
by a rising wind-storm, pelted with fierce rain or hail, or 
glimpsed only through sudden openings in a snowstorm, at 
sunrise or sunset, each with its own dazzling brilliancies — 
it always gives one a thrill and warming sensation at the 
heart. 

Then, too, the number of peaks to the summits of which 
trails have been cut, so that the walker, or the horseback 
rider may have easy access, are many and varied. In all 
there are not less than forty peaks, each of which is well 
worth a trip, each presenting some feature of its own that 
renders its personality worth cultivating. 

In this and other chapters, I present my own experiences 

153 



154 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

as illustrative to give the general reader an idea of what may 
be expected if he (or she) is induced to try one of the chief 
delights of a sojourn in this scenic region. 

watson's peak and lake 

Leaving Tahoe Tavern, crossing the bridge to Tahoe 
City, the trail leaves the main road on the left about a mile 
and a half further on, passing the horse pasture on the right. 
Near Tahoe City is the Free Camping Ground owned by the 
Transportation Company. This has a mile frontage over- 
looking the Lake, and scores of people habitually avail them- 
selves of the privilege, bringing their own outfits with them, 
as, at present, there are no arrangements made for renting 
tents and the needed furnishings to outsiders. 

The slope up which the trail now ascends with gradual 
rise is covered with variegated chaparral, making a beautiful 
mountain carpet and cushion for the eye. To the foot and 
body it is entangling and annoying, placing an effectual 
barrier before any but the most strenuous, athletic and deter- 
mined of men. 

Now the white firs, with their white bark, and the red- 
barked yellow pines begin to appear. They accompany us 
all the rest of the way to the peak and lake. 

Soon we cross Burton Creek, a mere creek except during 
the snow-melting or rain-falling time. It empties into 
Carnelian Bay. Burton was one of the old-timers who 
owned the Island ranch near the Lake shore, and who came 
to the Tahoe region at the time of the Squaw Valley mining 
excitement. When the " bottom fell out " of that he did 
a variety of things to earn a living, one of which was to cut 
bunch grass from Lake Valley and bring it on mules over 
the pass that bears his name, boat it across to Lakeside at 
the south end of the Lake, on the Placerville and Virginia 
City stage-road, and there sell it to the stage station. Hay 



TRAIL TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION 155 

thus gathered was worth in those days from $80 to $100 
per ton. 

About two and a half miles from the Tavern we come 
to a wood road, which is followed for half a mile. Years 
ago all these slopes were denuded of their valuable timber, 
which was " chuted " down to the Lake and then towed 
across to the sawmills at Glenbrook. The remnants are 
now being gathered up and used as fuel for the hotel and the 
steamboats. 

Here and there are charming little nurseries of tiny and 
growing yellow pines and white fir. How sweet, fresh and 
beautiful they look, — the Christmas trees of the fairies. And 
how glad they make the heart of the real lover of his coun- 
try, to whom " conservation " is not a fad, but an impera- 
tive necessity for the future — an obligation felt towards 
the generations yet to come. 

Of entirely different associations, and arousing a less agree- 
able chain of memories, are the ruined log-cabins of the 
wood-cutter's and logger's days. Several of these are passed. 

As we re-enter the trail, Watson's Peak, 8500 feet high, 
with its basaltic crown, looms before us. At our feet is a 
big bed of wild sunflowers, their flaring yellow and gold 
richly coloring the more somber slopes. Here I once saw a 
band of upwards of 2000 sheep, herded by a Basque, one of 
that strange European people who seem especially adapted by 
centuries of such life to be natural shepherds. Few of them 
speak much American, but they all know enough, when you 
ask them how many sheep they have, to answer, " About six- 
teen hundred." The limit allowed on any government re- 
serve in any one band is, I think, 1750, and though a passing 
ranger may be sure there are more, he is nonplussed when, 
on his making question, the owner or the shepherd shrugs his 
shoulders and says, " If you don't believe me, they're there. 
Go and count 'em! " 



156 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Before the officials treated some of the Basque shepherds 
with what seemed to be too great severity there were numer- 
ous forest fires on the reserve. These men were generally 
both self-willed and ignorant, and we passed by at this spot 
a clump of finely growing firs, which had been destroyed 
by a fire started by a shepherd the year before. 

Watson assures me that he has personally known many 
cases where a tree had been blown across a trail, and the 
shepherd would stop his sheep, set fire to the " wind-fall " 
and then leave it to burn — sometimes allowing it to smolder 
for months, to the infinite peril of the forest should an arous- 
ing wind blow the fire into life and make it spread. 

Fire notices, however, now are everywhere, and a few 
severe punishments have largely put a stop to all carelessness 
on the part of shepherds, let alone their culpable neglect. 
There are still campers and automobilists and others, of the 
so-called superior and educated race, who need as severe 
lessons as some of these ignorant Basque shepherds. They 
knock down the forest-service placards, throw down matches, 
cigar and cigarette stumps, and often go off and leave a camp- 
fire burning. The time is rapidly coming when severer and 
swifter penalties will be meted out to this class of culprits, 
for not only are their actions against the law, but they 
jeopairdize all property in and near to the forests, as well as 
the lives, sometimes, of many innocent men, women and 
children, besides destroying the value of the mountain slopes 
as watersheds. 

As our trail winds and ascends, the rotting stumps of trees 
cut years ago meet the eye on every hand, until at length, 
when at about 7CXX) feet altitude we see no more. The in- 
dications are clear that, though the timber is abundant above 
this elevation, for some reason or other cutting ceased. Care- 
ful observation reveals a possible reason for this. From 
this point on up the soil is both thin and poor, and though 




1,1. \-(-i<i-: i'\RT^' r)x THE "wild cocisi:," i,aix1-: tahok 




U^OKING TOWARD THE CASINO, TAHOE TAVERN, 
LAKE TAHOE 




A TRAIL PARTY ABOUT TO LEAVE TAI-IOE TAVERN 




ON THE TRAIL RETURNINC FROM Till-: SUMMIT OF MT. 
TALLAC 



TRAIL TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION 157 

the trees seem to have flourished they are, in reality, gnarled, 
twisted, stunted and unfit for a good quality of lumber. 
Many of them are already showing signs of decay, possibly 
a proof that they grew rapidly and are rotting with equal 
or greater speed. 

At this elevation, 7000 to 8000 feet, the red fir begins to 
appear. It is an attractive and ever-pleasing tree, its dark 
red bark soon making it a familar friend. 

How remarkably a woodsman can read what would be an 
unintelligible jumble of facts to a city man. Here on one 
trip we found a tree. Its top was smitten off and removed 
a distance of forty to fifty feet. Parts of the tree were 
scattered for a distance of two hundred yards. What caused 
it? The unobservant man would have passed it by, and 
the observant, though untrained and inexperienced, would 
have wondered without an answer. And yet a few minutes' 
observation, with the interpretation of Bob Watson, made 
it as clear as the adding of two to two. The lightning had 
struck the tree, and shot the top off as if lifted and carried 
away bodily, at the same time scattering the pieces in every 
direction. Then, it had seemed to jump from this tree to 
another, out of the side of which it had torn a large piece, as 
if, like a wild beast in angry fury, it had bitten out a 
giant mouthful of something it hated. It had then jumped 
— where? There was no sign. It simply disappeared. 

Near by we found quite a nursery of graceful, dainty and 
attractive young firs; " Noah's ark trees," I always feel like 
calling them, for they remind one constantly of the trees 
found in the Noah's arks of childhood days, made by the 
Swiss during the long winter nights in their mountain chalets, 
where the trees are of a similar character to those of the 
Sierras. 

Near to the point at which we turn to the left for Wat- 
son's Peak, and to the right for Watson's Lake, is a delicious, 



158 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

cool, clear spring, which I instinctively called, " the Spring 
of the Angels." When Bob asked the why of the name, 
the answer quickly came : " It is up so high and is so pure 
and good." The elevation is about 8ocx) feet. We take to 
the left. 

Here also Is found the mountain pine, its fine, smooth, 
black bark contrasting markedly with that of the firs and 
pines further down. It is generally found not lower than 
this elevation around Lake Tahoe. 

Near by are some scattered hemlocks. This tree is found 
even higher than the mountain pine, and is seldom found 
lower than 8000 feet. In these higher elevations one sees 
what a struggle some of the trees have for mere existence. 
Again and again a mountain pine will be found, a tree per- 
haps fifty feet high, bowed over almost to the ground. This 
was done by snow. Given the slightest list from the per- 
pendicular when the heavy, wet snow falls upon it, it is 
bound slowly to be forced over. If it is a tough, strong tree; 
it may sustain the weight until melting time comes, when it 
is released. But it never becomes upright again. On the 
other hand if a cold snap comes after the snow has bent it 
overj it is no uncommon thing for it to snap right in two, 
eight, ten or more feet from the ground. 

Now we stand on the summit. This peak and its attend- 
ant lake were named after my incomparable guide, Robert 
Watson, and it is well that the name of so admirable a man 
should be preserved in the region through which he has in- 
telligently and kindly guided so many interested visitors. 
The elevation is 8500 feet. 

WTiat a wonderful panorama is spread out before us. 
Close by, just across the valley in which nestles Watson's 
Lake, 7900 feet elevation, is Mt. Pluto, 8500 feet, the sides 
of which are covered with a dense virgin forest, thus present- 
ing a magnificent and glorious sight. There is no trail 



TRAIL TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION 159 

through this forest though sheep are taken there to graze in 
the quiet meadows secluded on the heights. 

Further to the east and north is Mt. Rose, 10,800 feet, 
on which is perched the Meteorological Observatory of the 
University of Nevada. Beyond is the Washoe Range. 

Even before reaching the summit we gain a fine view, 
through the trees, of Castle Peak, 9139 feet, while further 
north is Mt. Lola, 9167 feet. Close at hand is a glorious 
specimen of red fir, fully four and a half feet in diameter. 
Below us to the west is a patch of vivid green, known as 
Antone Meadows. It was named after a Switzer who lived 
there years ago and whose children now own it. Not far 
away is Round Meadow, locally known as Bear-Trap 
Meadow, for one may still find there an old bear-trap that 
hunters were wont to use thirty or forty years ago. In this 
meadow is the cabin of the Forest Ranger, which we shall 
see on the return trip. 

Looking now over Lake Tahoe to the western horizon we 
see, over Tahoe Tavern, and a little west of north. Needle 
Peak (8920 feet), to the right of which is Lyon Peak 
(about 9000 feet). A trifle to the south of Needle Peak 
is Granite Chief, followed by Squaw Peak (8960 feet). 
Ward Peak (8665 feet), and Twin Peak (8924 feet) the 
one to the right having the appearance of a buffalo feeding. 

While these peaks appear in a line, and as if belonging to 
the same range, a glimpse at the map will reveal that they 
are some miles apart. 

As we look further south, across the head of Ward and 
Blackwood Creek Canyons, the mountains do not seem so 
high, though we discern Barker Peak (over 8000 feet). 

Still further southward is Ellis Peak (8700 feet) appar- 
ently well timbered. It was named after Jock Ellis, who, on 
the further side, had a dairy ranch for a while. But when 
he found the cream would not rise in the colder periods of 



i6o THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

the year, he gave up his dairj^, and went to raising sheep. 
In the summer months, however, he had no trouble in dis- 
posing of all the butter he could make, or milk and cream 
he cared to sell, for he was on the road from Georgetown 
which passed by Rubicon Springs to McKinney's on the 
Lake. 

On the ridge to the left are the Rubicon Peaks (9199 
feet) three of them apparently, all closely overlooking Lake 
Tahoe, and leading the eye down to Sugar Pine Point, which 
is at the south end of McKinney's Bay. 

To the west of Rubicon Peaks is Phipps Peak (9120 feet), 
and a little farther back Mt. Tallac (9185 feet), while 
farther to the south is Ralston Peak (about 9500 feet), at 
this angle and distance appearing not unlike one of the domes 
of the Yosemite Valley. Near by, to the right, is Pyramid 
Peak (10,020 feet), though from here it presents a very 
different appearance from that it holds when viewed from 
Mt. Tallac. Still farther to the right is Tell's Peak (9125 
feet), apparently at the end of a richly timbered ridge. Tell 
was an old Switzer who used to keep a dairy ranch on the 
slopes of the mountain bearing his name. 

At the extreme south of Lake Tahoe stands Round Top 
(10,130 feet), to the left of which are the three great peaks 
of the Tahoe region, Freel's ( 10,900 feet) , Job's ( 10,500 
feet) and Job's Sister (10,820 feet). Freel was one of the 
old timers who used to have a cattle-range on the slopes. 

Then, allowing the eye to follow along the southeastern 
curve of the Lake up to the mountains on the eastern side, 
the first great depression is the pass over which the Placer- 
ville road goes down the Kingsbury grade to Genoa. At 
the foot of the grade, at the entrance to the Carson Valley 
is Van Sickle's old place, one of the early day stage-stations 
on the Placerville road. 

Van Sickle was a noted character, a fearless, rude pioneer. 



TRAIL TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION i6i 

but well liked and highly respected. His fame was ma- 
terially enhanced when he killed Sam Brown, one of the 
noted desperadoes of the Tahoe region in the days of the 
Virginia City mining excitement. Tradition says that 
Brown was a fire-eating southerner, from Texas, a man 
proud of his bad record of several murders. He was notori- 
ous in Virginia City, and when the war broke out was one 
of the outspoken heralds and advocates of secession. He had 
trouble with Van Sickle and had threatened to kill him on 
sight. Coming to the place for this purpose he himself was 
killed, for Van Sickle secured a shot-gun, " laid for him," 
and shot him. A great sense of relief was felt by many 
people at this, what was then considered not only a justifia- 
ble but highly laudable act, for Brown was seeking to raise 
a body of men to go South and fight in the Civil War. This 
event had much to do with stopping too vigorous advocacy 
of the claims of the South from that time on in Virginia 
City and the immediate neighborhood. 

The road around the Lake forks at a place originally 
known as Edgewood's, the branch to the left continuing 
along the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe, past Round Mound 
and Cave Rock to Glenbrook, where it swings over the 
grade to the east and over the summit, divides, one branch 
going down Clear Creek Canyon, and the other down 
King's Canyon to Carson City. It is thirteen and a half 
miles from Glenbrook to Carson by way of King's Canyon, 
and automobiles use this route, while stages run regularly 
over the other route via Clear Creek Canyon which is only 
fourteen and a quarter miles to Carson. 

It was during the lumbering days at Glenbrook that the 
railway ran from the mills to the summit, nine miles, carrying 
carloads of lumber there, which were then unloaded and 
shot down the water-flume to Carson City. 

Letting the eye still follow the eastern shore of Lake 



i62 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Tahoe completing the circuit, northward, Snow Valley Peak 
and Marietta Peak are reached. Under the latter, to the 
southwest, is Marietta Lake, largely an artificial body over 
a mile long and half a mile wide, which is the reservoir for 
the water supply of Virginia City. The course of the con- 
veying flume may distinctly be traced, for part of its twenty- 
four miles of length. Both peak and lake were named after 
S. H. Marlette, once Surveyor-General of Nevada, and a 
well-known character of the earlier mining days. 

Just below Marlette Lake, almost directly facing Tahoe 
Tavern, are several scarrings, running almost parallel to 
each other and going in the most direct fashion to Lake 
Tahoe. These denote where the flume broke and the water 
made its ovtm rude channels to the Lake beneath. 

From this inadequate and imperfect description it can 
readily be imagined what a sublime and comprehensive 
view is afforded from Watson's Peak. Every visitor to 
Tahoe should take the trip, especially those who stay for a 
few days or longer at Tahoe Tavern. 

WATSON LAKE 

About half a mile northwest from the summit of Watson 
Peak is Watson Lake, 7900 feet. It is about 300 yards 
long by 250 yards broad, hence rudely oval in shape. While 
about fifty feet deep in the center, it shallows toward the 
edges, where lilies abound, and then becomes mere marsh. 
Practically it is surrounded by trees. Restocked with a 
variety of fish (trout) in large numbers each year, it is one 
of the best fishing lakes at the northern end of Lake Tahoe, 
and a most enjoyable day to the angler is to start early, 
take his lunch along, and spend the day there. 

To those who are not anglers this same day can be spent 
in the quiet enjoyment of the trees, flowers, lake and sky. 

The outlet from the lake is by Deer Creek, and thence 



TRAIL TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION 163 

into the Truckee not far from the site of the old mining- 
camp of Knoxville. 

The return trip to Tahoe Tavern is made through a 
virgin forest, on a ridge between Watson Lake and the 
Truckee Valley, the trail having been outlined only about 
five years ago. Later the Forest Rangers considerably im- 
proved it, until now it is a very easy and comfortable trail 
to traverse. One notices here the especial " blaze " on the 
trees, of the rangers. It consists of a perpendicular parallelo- 
gram with a square above, thus 



Wherever this blaze is found everybody in the region knows 
it for a ranger's blaze, denoting a trail leading to a ranger's 
cabin. 

On this ride one has a wonderful illustration of the popu- 
lar fallacy in woodcraft that moss is always found on the 
north side of the trees. Here the moss is mainly on the west. 
The fact is the moss is generally found on the side from 
which the rain-storms come, and here they are mainly from 
the south and southwest. A mile or so away on the trail 
to Watson's Lake the moss is all on the southwest side of the 
trees. 

Most of the trees here are red fir and mountain pine, some 
of them being of large size, and noble specimens. 

A little further on a fine opening reveals Deer Creek, 
through which the waters of Watson Lake flow to the 
Truckee. It was nearing the hour of sunset when I reached 



i64 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

this point, and the trees were glowing with flaming gold, re- 
minding one of the pictures John Enneking, the wonderful 
Boston artist, so loves to paint, while below the water 
gleamed like dazzling diamonds. 

Along here the side of the ridge below the trail seemed 
as if plowed into a number of rudely parallel lines. These 
were sheep-trails made as the sheep followed each other over 
the softer soil of the mountain side. 

A mile and a half from Watson Lake we came to a 
telephone box. This was the signal box of the Forest 
Rangers connecting with Lake Tahoe, five miles away, 
Truckee, eight miles, Shaffer's Mills, five miles and thence 
to Brockway, six miles. In the direction we were going 
it was but one mile to the ranger's log-cabin in Round 
Meadow. 

In the winter time the ranger often finds it difficult to 
keep the line in operation. The damp snow falling upon 
the wire, clings to it, freezes and keeps receiving additions 
until it is bigger than a man's arm, and the weight breaks 
it down. 

As we rode along we saw a fat porcupine, weighing full 
twenty-five pounds and deliberately walking up the slope 
near by, as if going to its den in the rocks, but, though we 
yelled and shouted, it scorned to notice us and indifferently 
went its way. A horned owl now and then hooted and bade 
us begone, while a badger came out from his hole, but hur- 
ried back when he saw or smelled who we were. 

Now and again we caught marvelous sunset reflections 
on Lake Tahoe through the trees, and on the eastern moun- 
tains was a peach glow more soft and beautiful than the 
famous Alpen glow. 

Soon the sun was gone, and then, as we rode through the 
dark aisles of the trees the stars came out and shone with 
dazzling splendor overhead. Just as we left the ranger's 



TRAIL TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION 165 

cabin a long dark corridor of majestic trees framed in a 
patch of black velvet in the upper sky, and there, in the very 
center, shining in resplendent glory, was Venus, the evening 
star. 

The vi^ind began to blow a regular cyclone from the north, 
so the roaring of the trees told us, but we were largely shel- 
tered, and as we looked up through the dancing and whirling 
tree-tops there was not a cloud in the sky. 

Thus we returned to the Tavern, dramatically and glori- 
ously bringing our delightful and easy trip to an end. 

I have been rather prolix, and have entered much more 
fully into detail than some may deem necessary in the ac- 
count of this trip, for two important reasons. It is a trip 
that none should fail to take, and I have made it a sort 
of general account, giving in broad outline what the visitor 
may expect of any of the peak trips in the vicinity of Tahoe 
Tavern. It goes without saying that, constantly, from a 
score or more outlook points, the eye finds its resting place 
upon Lake Tahoe, each view being different and more charm- 
ing than the one that preceeded it. 

TO SQUAW VALLEY, GRANITE CHIEF PEAK, FIVE 
LAKES AND DEER PARK SPRINGS 

Leaving Tahoe Tavern we cross the Truckee River and 
ride down on the north side. The flowing Truckee is 
placid and smooth, save where eager trout jump and splash. 
The meadows are richly green and the mountain slope on 
the further side is radiant with virgin tree-life in joyous 
exuberance. Jays are harshly calling, chipmunks are ex- 
citedly running, the pure blue of the sky over-arches all, the 
wine of the morning is in the air, and we are glad we are 
alive. A spring of pure cold water on the right, about a 
mile out, tempts us to a delicious morning draught. 

A little further down is " Pap." Church's " Devil's Play- 



i66 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

ground," " Devil's Post," and devil's this, that and the other, 
out of which he gained considerable satisfaction v^^hile driv- 
ing stage-coach between Truckee and Tahoe in the days be- 
fore the railroad. 

It is well carefully to observe these singular lava pudding- 
stone masses, for, according to the theory of John Le Conte, 
the eminent physicist, recounted in another chapter, these 
were the restraining masses that made the Lake at one time 
eighty or a hundred feet higher than it is to-day. 

Four miles from the Tavern we pass Engineer Von 
Schmidt's old dam, for the history of which see the chapter 
on " The Truckee River." 

Near Deer Park Station is another spring on the right. 
In the old stage days " Pap." Church always stopped here 
and gave his passengers the opportunity to drink of the 
water, while he made discourse as to its remarkable coldness. 
Five years ago a land slide completely buried it, and the road 
had to be cut through again. Ever since the spring has been 
partially clogged and does not flow freely, but it is cold 
enough to make one's teeth ache. 

In the winter of 1 88 1-2 a land-and-snow-slide occurred 
a little beyond Deer Park Station. Watson was carrying 
the mail on snow-shoes at the time and saw it. There had 
been a five foot fall of snow in early March, and a week or 
two later came a second fall of seven feet. Something 
started the mass, and down it came, rushing completely across 
the river and damming it up, high on the other side, and 
the course of the slide can clearly be seen to-day. It is now, 
however, almost covered with recent growth of chaparral, and 
thus contributed to one of the most beautiful effects of light 
and shade I ever saw. The mountain slope on one side was 
completely covered with a growth of perfect trees. Through 
these came pencillings of light from the rising sun, casting 
alternate rulings of light and shadow in parallel lines on 



TRAIL TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION 167 

the glossy surface of the chaparral beyond. The effect was 
enhanced by the fleecy and sunshiny clouds floating in the 
cobalt blue above. 

Near the mouth of Bear Creek the river makes a slight 
curve and also a drop at the same time, and the road, making 
a slight rise, presents the view of a beautiful stretch of roar- 
ing and foaming cascades. Here the canyon walls are of 
bare, rocky ridges, of white and red barrenness, with oc- 
casional patches of timber, but very different from the tree- 
clad slopes that we have enjoyed hitherto all the way down 
from the Tavern. 

Beyond is a little grove of quaking aspens. Their leaves, 
quivering in the morning breeze, attract the eye. Crossing 
the railway, the road makes a climb up a hill that at one time 
may have formed a natural dam across the river. Here is 
a scarred tree on the left where Handsome Jack ran his 
stage off the bank in 1875, breaking his leg and seriously in- 
juring his passengers. 

Crossing the next bridge to the left at the mouth of 
Squaw Creek, six miles from the Tavern, on a small flat by 
the side of the river is the site of the town of Claraville, one 
of the reminders of the Squaw Valley mining excitement. 

Just below this bridge Is an old log chute, and a dam in 
the river. This dam backed up the water and made a 
" cushion " into which the logs came dashing and splashing, 
down from the mountain heights above. They were then 
floated down the river to the sawmill at Truckee. 

At Knoxville we forded the river at a point where a giant 
split bowlder made a tunnel and the water dashed through 
with roaring speed. Retracing our steps for a mile or so 
we came to the Wigwam Inn, a wayside resort and store 
just at the entrance to Squaw Valley. To the right flows 
Squaw Creek, alongside of which is the bed of the logging 
railway belonging to the Truckee Lumber Co. It was aban- 



i68 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

doned two or three years ago, when all the available logs 
of the region had been cut. Most of the timber-land be- 
tween Squaw Creek and Truckee, on both sides of the river, 
was purchased years ago, from its locators, by the Truckee 
Lumber Company. But Scott Bros, purchased a hundred 
and sixty acres from the locators and established a dairy in 
Squaw Valley, supplying the logging-camps with milk and 
butter for many years past. 

For forty years or more this region has been the scene of 
active logging, the work having begun under the direction 
of Messrs. Bricknell and Kinger, of Forest Hill. The pres- 
ent president of the Truckee Lumber Co. is Mr. Hazlett, 
who married the daughter of Kinger. This company, after 
the railway removed from Glenbrook and was established 
between Tahoe and Truckee, lumbered along the west side 
of Tahoe as far as Ward Creek. 

Entering the valley we find it free from willows, open and 
clear. The upper end is surrounded, amphitheater fashion, 
by majestic mountains, rising to a height of upwards of 
9000 feet. Clothed with sage-brush at the lower end and 
rich grass further up, even to the very base of the mountains, 
it is, in some respects, the prettiest valley in the whole of this 
part of the Sierra Nevadas. 

The upper meadows are full of milk cows, quietly grazing 
or lying down and chewing their cuds, while just beyond the 
great dairy buildings is the unpretentious cottage of the 
Forest Ranger. Remnants of old log chutes remind one of 
the logging activities that used to be carried on here. 

One of the most observable features of Squaw Valley is 
its level character. This is discussed in the chapter on 
glacial action. 

On the right the vein of quartz which out-crops at Knox- 
ville is visible in several places and the various dump-piles 



TRAIL TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION 169 

show how many claimants worked on their locations in the 
hope of finding profitable ore. 

Half way up the valley is an Iron Spring, the oxydization 
from which has gathered together a large amount of red 
which the Indians still prize highly and use for face paint. 

How these suggestions excite the imagination — old log- 
ging chutes, mining-claims and Indians. Once this valley 
rang with the clang of chains on driven oxen, the sharp stroke 
of the ax as it bit into the heart of the tree, the crash of the 
giant trees as they fell, the rude snarl of the saw as it cut 
them up into logs, the shout of the driver as he drove his 
horses alongside the chute and hurried the logs down to the 
river, the quick blast of the imprisoned powder, the falling 
of shattered rocks, the emptying of the ore or waste-bucket 
upon the dump — all these sounds once echoed to and from 
these hillsides and mountain slopes. 

Now everything is as quiet and placid as a New England 
pastoral scene, and only the towering mountains, snow-clad 
even as late as this in the fall, suggest that we are in the 
far-iaway wilds of the great West. 

But Squaw Valley had another epoch, which it was hoped 
would materially and forever destroy its quiet and pastoral 
character. In the earlier days of the California gold excite- 
ment the main road from Truckee and Donner Lake went 
into Nevada County and thus on to Sacramento. In 1862 
the supervisors of Placer County, urged on by the merchants, 
sent up a gang of men from Placerville to build a road from 
Squaw Valley, into the Little American Valley, down the 
Forest Hill Divide, thus hoping to bring the emigrant travel 
to Forest Hill, Michigan Bluff, and other parts of Placer 
County. 

It was also argued that emigrants would be glad to take 
this new road as all the pasture along the other road was 



I70 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

" eaten off." Over this historic road we are now about to 
ride. 

As we look up it is a forbidding prospect. Only brave 
men and sanguine would ever have dared to contemplate such 
a plan. The mountain cliffs, separated and split, arise be- 
fore us as impassable barriers. Yet one branch of the old 
trail used to pass through the divide to the right, over to 
Hopkins Springs, while the one that was converted into the 
wagon road took the left-hand canyon to the main divide. 

We now begin to ascend this road at the head of Squaw 
Valley, and in five minutes, or less, are able to decide why 
ft was never a success. The grade is frightful, and for an 
hour or more we go slowly up it, stopping every few yards 
to give our horses breath. All the way along we can trace 
the blazes on the trees made over sixty years ago. It is 
hard enough for horses to go up this grade, but to pull 
heavily-ladened wagons — it seems impossible that even those 
giant-hearted men, used to seeing so many impossible things 
accomplished, could ever have believed that such a road 
could be feasible. What wonderful, marvelous, undaunted 
characters they must have been, men with wills of inflexible 
steel, to overcome such obstacles and dare such hardships. 
Yet there were compensations. Squaw Creek's clear, pel- 
lucid, snow-fed stream runs purling, babbling or roaring 
and foaming by to the right. These pioneers with their 
women and children had crossed the sandy, alkali and water- 
less deserts. For days and weeks they had not had water 
enough to keep their faces clean, to wash the sand from their 
eyes. Now, though they had come to a land of apparently 
unscalable mountains and impassable rock-barriers, they had 
grass for the stock, and water, — delicious, fresh, pure, re- 
freshing water for themselves. I can imagine that when 
they reached here they felt it was a new paradise, and that 
God was especially smiling upon them, and to such men, 



TRAIL TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION 171 

with such feelings, what could daunt, what prevent, what 
long stay their onward march. 

As we ascend, the mountains on our right assume the 
form of artificial parapets of almost white rock, outlined 
against the bluest of blue skies. There is one gray peak 
ahead, tinged with green. The trail is all washed away and 
our horses stumble and slide, slip and almost fall over the 
barren and rough rocks, and the scattered bowlders, a dev- 
astating cloud-burst could not wash away. 

Here is a spring on the left, hidden in a grove of alders 
and willows, and now new and more fantastic spires arise 
on the right. Higher up we see where those sturdy road- 
builders rolled giant rocks out of their way to make an 
impassable road look as if it could be traversed. 

Reaching the point at the foot of Squaw Peak at last we 
look back over Squaw Valley. In the late summer tints 
it is beautiful, but what must it be in the full flush of 
its summer glory and perfection? Then it must be a de- 
light to the eye and a refreshment to the soul. How in- 
teresting, too, it is to rehabilitate it as a great glacial lake. 
One can see its pellucid waters of clear amethystine blue 
and imagine the scenes that transpired when the ancestors 
of the present Indians fished, in rude dugouts, or on logs, 
or extemporized rafts, upon its surface. Now it is cov- 
ered with brown, yellowish grass, with tree-clad slopes ris- 
ing from the marge. 

Turning to the right we find ourselves in a country of 
massive bowlders. They seem to have been broken off 
from the summits above and arrested here for future ages 
and movements to change or pass on. 

The road grows severer than ever, and we cannot help 
again picturing those old heroes driving their wagons up, 
while the women and children toiled painfully on foot up 
the steep and rocky slopes. Could anything ever daunt 



172 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

them after this? any obstacle, however insurmountable, dis- 
courage them? any labor, however severe, compel them to 
turn back? 

Though there is a deep pathos in all these memories, the 
heroism of it makes our blood tingle with pride that such 
men and women belonged to us, that we are privileged to 
live in the land their labors, loves and lives have sanctified. 

We turn to the right; a tiny waterfall, which in the 
season must be quite a sight, trickles down near by; we 
are now advancing directly upon the serrated ridge of fan- 
tastic spires that have long accompanied us. We now find 
those white-seeming pinnacles are of delicate pinks, creams, 
blues, slates and grays. In, one place, however, it seems 
for all the world as if there were a miniature Gothic chapel 
built of dark, brownish-black lava. Another small patch 
of the same color and material, lower down, presents a 
gable end, with windows, reminding us of the popular 
picture of Melrose Abbey in the moonlight. 

Now we are lined on either side by removed bowlders, 
but the road! ah the road! who could ever have traveled 
over it? Trees twenty feet high have now grown, up in 
the roadway. To the left Squaw Peak (8960 feet) towers 
above us, while we make the last great pull through the 
rocky portion ere we come to the easier rise to the shoulders 
of Granite Chief. Here the road was graded out from 
the side of a granite mountain, blasted out and built up, but 
it is now sadly washed out. Further up, a broad porphyritic 
dyke crosses our path, then more trees, and we come to the 
gentle slope of a kind of granitic sand which composes the 
open space leading to the pass between Granite Chief on 
the right, and a peculiar battlemented rock, locally known 
as Fort Sumpter, on the left. This was named by the 
Squaw Valley stampeders who came over the trail in the 



TRAIL TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION 173 

early days of the Civil War, when all patriots and others 
were excited to the core at the news that Fort Sumpter 
had been fired upon. On one of the highest points stands 
a juniper on which a big blaze was cut by the early road- 
makers, so that there need be no doubt as to which way 
the road turned. Other nearby trees, in their wild rugged- 
ness and sturdy growth, remind us of a woman whose skirts 
are blown about by a fierce wind. Their appearance speaks 
of storms braved, battles of wind and snow and ice and cold 
fought and won, for they have neither branch nor leaf on 
the exposed side, and on the other are pitiably scant. 

As we cross the sandy divide, over which a wagon could 
drive anywhere, we find white sage in abundance. Expan- 
sive vistas loom before us, ahead and to the right, while 
Squaw Peak now presents the appearance of a vast sky-line 
crater. We seem to be standing on the inside of it, but on 
the side where the wall has disappeared. Across, the peak 
has a circular, palisaded appearance, and the lower peaks to 
the right seem as if they were the continuation of the wall, 
making a vast crater several miles in diameter. The pla- 
teau upon which we stand seems as if it might have been 
a level spot almost near the center of the bowl. Fort 
Sumpter is a part of this great crater-like wall and Granite 
Chief is the end of the ridge. 

As a rule there is a giant bank of snow on the saddle 
over which the trail goes between Ft. Sumpter and Granite 
Chief, but this year (191 3) it has totally disappeared. It 
has been the driest season known for many years. 

Looking back towards the Lake a glorious and expansive 
view is presented. Watson Peak, Mt. Rose, Marlette 
Peak, Glenbrook and the pass behind it, are all in sight 
and the Lake glistening in pearly brilliancy below. 

At the end of the Squaw Peak ridge, on the right, is a 



174 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

mass of andesite, looking like rude cordwood, and just 
above is a mass of breccia very similar to that found in the 
Truckee Valley a fev^^ miles below^ Tahoe Tavern. 

Belovi^ us, at the head of Squaw^ Creek is a small blue 
pond, scarcely large and important enough to be called a 
lake, yet a distinctive feature and one that would be highly 
prized in a less-favored landscape. 

On the very summit of the ridge we get fine views of 
Mounts Ralston, Richardson, Pyramid Peak and the whole 
Rock Bound Range, while close at hand to the north is 
Needle Peak (8920 feet), and to the south, Mt. Mildred 
(8400 feet). To our left is Fort Sumpter, to the right 
the Granite Chief, and between the two a stiff breeze is 
blowing. 

Have you ever stood on a mountain ridge or divide 
when a fierce gale was blowing, so that you were unable 
to walk without staggering, and where it was hard to get 
your breath, much less speak, and where it seemed as if 
Nature herself had set herself the purpose of cleansing you 
through and through with her sweetening pneumatic proc- 
esses? If not, you have missed one of the blessed influ- 
ences of life. 

Rough? harsh? severe? Of course, but what of that, 
compared with the blessings that result. It is things like 
that that teach one to love Nature. Read John Muir's ac- 
count — in his Mountains of California — and see how he 
reveled in wind-storms, and even climbed into a tree and 
clung to its top " like a bobolink on a reed " in order to 
enjoy a storm to the full. 

Immediately at our feet lie the various mazes of can- 
yons and ravines that make the diverse forks of the Ameri- 
can River. In one place is a forbidding El Capitan, while 
in another we can clearly follow for miles the Royal Gorge 
of this many branched Sierran river. To the right is 



TRAIL TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION 175 

Castle Peak (9139 feet) to the north and west of Donner 
Lake, while nearby is Tinker's Knob (9020 feet) leading 
the eye down to Hopkins' Soda Springs. Beyond is Don- 
ner Peak (8135 feet) pointing out the location of Summit 
Valley, just to the left (west) where the trains of the 
Southern Pacific send up their smoke-pufifs and clouds into 
the air. 

At our feet is the Little American Valley, in which is 
the road, up the eastern portion of which we have so toil- 
somely climbed. With a little pointing out it is possible 
to follow the route it followed on the balance of its steep 
and perilous way. Crossing the valley beneath it zig- 
zagged over the bluff to the right, through the timber to 
the ridge between the North and Middle Forks, then down, 
down, by Last Chance to Michigan Bluff. The reverent 
man instinctively thanks God that he is not compelled to 
drive a wagon, containing his household goods, as well as 
his wife and children, over such roads nowadays. 

Just before making the descent we succeed in getting a 
suggestive glimpse of what is finely revealed on a clear 
day. Slightly to the south of west is Mount Diablo, while 
northwards the Marysville Buttes, Lassen's rugged butte, 
and even stately Mt. Shasta are in distinct sight. At this 
time the atmosphere is smoky with forest fires and the burn- 
ing of the tules in the Sacramento and other interior val- 
leys, hence our view is not a clear one. 

It did not take us long to reach the old stage-station in 
the Little American Valley. Here Greek George — he was 
never known by any other name — had a station, only the 
charred logs remaining to tell of some irreverent sheep- 
herder or Indian who had no regard for historic landmarks. 
The pile of rocks which remain denote the presence of the 
chimney. When the new stage-road was built and travel 
over this road — always very slim and precarious — com- 



176 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

pletely declined, Greek George removed, but his log hotel 
and bunk-house remained until a few years ago. 

We lunch by the side of the old chimney and ruminate 
over the scenes that may have transpired here in those early 
days. 

On our way back we pass the stumps of two large firs 
which were undoubtedly cut down to supply George's houses 
with shakes. At the base of Ft. Sumpter we leave the 
trail down which we have come, with the intention of 
going — without a trail — down Whisky Creek, over sev- 
eral interesting meadows to Five Lake Creek, and thence 
up by the Five Lakes, over the pass into Bear Creek Can- 
yon, past Deer Park to the Truckee River and thus to the 
Tavern. 

With such an excellent guide as Bob Watson we have 
no hesitation in striking out in any direction and in a short 
time Mt. Mildred (8400 feet) is on our right. 

Great groves of willows and alders cover immense areas 
of the canyon's sides, while we pass a giant red fir with a 
diameter of fully six feet. 

When about half a mile from Five Lake Creek the larg- 
est portion of the canyon is taken up with irregular masses 
of granite over which a glacier, or glaciers, have moved. 
The striation and markings are down the valley, and look- 
ing up from below the canyon for a mile or more it has 
the appearance of a series of irregular giant steps, each step 
gradually sloping back to the step above. From above the 
course of the glacier seems clear. It must have flowed 
downwards, polishing and smoothing each step in turn, then 
falling over the twenty, thirty or fifty feet high edge to the 
next lower level, to ascend the next slope, reach the next 
precipice, and so on. 

At the point where we strike Five Lake Creek, in a large 
expanse of meadow, we pass a camp, where in the distance 



TRAIL TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION 177 

we can clearly see three men and a woman. Deer hunters 
probably. We give them a cheery Halloo! and pass on. 

Five Lake Creek here makes a sharp bend into the can- 
yon which is a continuation of the canyon down which we 
have been traveling, and enters the Rubicon River at Hell 
Hole. We, however, turn up the Creek to the northeast, 
here striking the regular Hell Hole trail built a few years 
ago by Miss Katherine Chandler, of Deer Park. Just 
ahead of us, appearing through a grove of trees near to 
where the Five Lakes are nestling, is a perfectly white cloud, 
absolutely startling in the vividness of its contrast to the 
deep blue of the sky and the equally deep green of the firs 
and pines. 

A wilderness of bowlders compels the winding about of 
the trail, but we hear and see Five Lake Creek, roaring 
and dashing along, for it has a large flow of water and its 
course is steep and rocky. We pass through groups of wil- 
lows, wild currants and alders, enter a sparsely wooded 
meadow and in a few moments see the first of the Five 
Lakes. There is but little difference in their levels, 
though their sizes vary considerably. The first one is the 
largest. Here is a log cabin and two or three boats. These 
are owned by the D'eer Park Springs resort, and are for 
their fishing and hunting patrons. They also own a hun- 
dred and sixty acres here, which include the area of the 
lake. The two first or lower lakes are the largest and 
the deepest. It is their flow which makes Five Lakes Creek. 
The three upper lakes are smaller and shallower. It is said 
that a divide used to separate the two lower from the 
three upper lakes, and the flow from the latter descended 
through Bear Creek, past Deer Park, into the Truckee 
River and thence into far-away Pyramid Lake in Nevada. 

From this point the trail is clear and well defined, be- 
ing traveled constantly during the season by guests of Deer 



178 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Park Springs. Passing through a fine nursery of beauti- 
ful and exquisite red firs we drop into the canyon of Bear 
Creek. To the left are great andesite crowns on the moun- 
tain tops. Here also are more glacially polished masses 
and cliffs of granite, clearly indicating great glacial activity 
in the upper part of this canyon. The trail is ticklish in 
a few places, with steps up and down which our horses take 
gingerly, but nothing which need excite an extra heart-beat 
to one used to mountain trails. 

In less than half an hour we are at Deer Park Springs, 
drinking its pleasant waters, and while we still have six and 
a half miles to go to the Tavern it is over easy and ordinary 
road, and therefore our pleasant trip is practically at an end. 

TO ELLIS PEAK 

Homewood is the natural starting point for Ellis Peak 
(8745 feet) as the trail practically leaves the Lake high- 
road at that point, and strikes directly upon the mountain 
slope. Hundreds make the trip on foot and it is by no 
means an arduous task, but many prefer to go horse-back 
or burro-back. In its upward beginnings the trail follows 
the course of an old logging chute for a distance of some 
two miles, the lake terminus of which is now buried in a 
nursery of white fir and masses of white lilac. There are 
a few cedars and pines left untouched by the logger's ax, 
but they are not prime lumber trees, or not one of them 
would now be standing. 

To the right is Dick Madden Creek, which, like all the 
streams on the eastern slopes of the great western escarp- 
ment of Lake Tahoe, comes dashing and roaring down steep 
and rocky beds to the Lake. 

When at about 7000 feet we find few other than red 
firs and mountain pines. Here is a wonderful nursery of 
them that have secured a firm hold upon life. Through- 



TRAIL TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION 179 

out the whole region the year 191 3 seems to have been a 
most kindly one for the untended, uncared for baby-trees. 
There has been comparatively little snowfall for three suc- 
cessive years, and this has given the young trees a chance. 
As soon as their heads appear above the snow and they are 
not battered down by storm they can make their way, but 
if the heavy snow falls and remains upon them too long, 
they are either smothered, or so broken down, that life be- 
comes a fearful struggle and scores of them succumb. Yet 
in spite of this fact hemlocks and red firs seem to prefer the 
north or shady slopes of the mountains and invariably 
thrive much better there than where there is sunnier ex- 
posure. 

When about three miles up from the Lake we reach a 
richly-grassed meadow, about five acres in extent, confined 
in a bowl-shaped rim, broken down at the east side, through 
which a rivulet, which flows across the meadow, finds out- 
let. This is undoubtedly one of the many mountain lakes 
of the region, too shallow and with too sluggish a flow 
of water into it to clear itself of the detritus washed down 
from the disintegrating slopes above, hence it ultimately 
filled up and entered upon a new life as a meadow. 

On the upper side of the meadow the trail passes through 
a glorious grove of hemlocks, the clean and clear " floor " 
of which leads one to the observation that hemlocks gener- 
ally seem to be hostile to other and lesser growth coming 
in to occupy the ground with them. 

Sierran heather of purple color now appears here and 
there in patches and we find quantities of it further along. 
There are also several peculiar pufF-balls, and close by a 
remarkable fungus-growth like a cauliflower, fully a foot 
in diameter. 

Nearing the summit we come to another meadow fol- 
lowed by another grove, where scarcely any trees but hem- 



i8o THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

locks are to be seen. Here also we see great beds of the 
California primrose which grows with a straight upright 
stem crowned with blood-red or deep scarlet flowers above 
a rich cluster of leaves. These flowers generally can be 
found blooming quite late in the season, following the 
snowline as the summer's sun makes it climb higher each 
day. When the winter's snows have been extra heavy the 
plants are covered and no flowers appear, as the snow melts 
too late, but when there is a lesser amount they bloom as 
freely as ever, apparently none the worse for their dormant 
period. 

Over the peak billowy white clouds are tossing, like 
giant cradles built of the daintiest and most silvery cloud- 
stuff to be found in the heavens for the rocking of the cloud- 
babies to sleep. 

On a sister peak to Ellis Peak, just to the south, is to 
be seen a remarkable and strikingly picturesque cluster of 
hemlocks. It is almost circular in form, with eight trees in 
the center, and twenty-three on the outer rim, which is 
over a hundred feet in circumference. Seldom does one 
see so interesting a group of trees anywhere, even when 
planted, and these, of course, are of native growth. 

The summit itself is of broken and shattered granite, 
which has allowed a scraggly mountain pine to take root 
and grow close to the U. S. Geological Survey monument. 
A fierce gale was blowing from the west, and turning 
toward the tree-clad slopes of the east, we stood in the 
wind, with the everlasting blue above and the glorious 
and never-failing green beneath. Unconsciously there 
sprang to my lips Joaquin Miller's lines: 

And ever and ever His boundless blue, 
And ever and ever His green, green sod, 
And ever and ever between the two 
Walk the wonderful winds of God. 



TRAIL TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION i8i 

Braving the wind and looking over the steep precipice 
to the west we see, some four hundred or five hundred feet 
below us, so that it seems that we might almost throw a 
stone into it, a small lake. This is Bessie Lake, named 
after Mrs. C. F. Kohl, of Idlewyld. It discharges its 
surplus waters into Blackwood Creek, and has several times 
been stocked with fish. In the mid-distance is Loon Lake, 
which is the head-waters of the California Ditch, which 
follows over the Georgetown Divide, carries water some 
forty to fifty miles, and is distributed by its owners, the 
Reno Water and Electric Power Co., for mining, irrigation 
and domestic purposes. 

East of Loon Lake are Spider and Pleasant Lakes, all of 
which we are told are connected with one another and 
controlled by the same company. Another lake, Bixly or 
Bixby, slightly to the north of Pleasant, is also connected. 

To the east of Pleasant Lake, Buck Island and Rock 
Bound Lakes were dazzlingly brilliant in the mid-day 
sun. 

One has but to look at the map to realize what a com- 
prehensive survey is possible in every direction from Ellis 
Peak. There is no wonder that it is so popular. The pan- 
orama is unobstructed — the outlook practically complete 
and perfect. Though the whole of the Lake is not revealed, 
there is sufficient of it to make a transcendent picture. 
Every peak to the north and on the eastern side is in sight, 
while the Tallac range, and the near-by mountains make one 
long for an aeroplane that he might step from peak to peak 
without the effort of journeying by land to their elevated 
summits. 

On the left side of Tinker's Knob is a peak, unmarked 
on the map, to which the name of Lion Peak has been given, 
for the following reason: Some years ago former Governor 
Stanford's nephew, who has been a visitor for many years 



i83 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

at Hopkins' Spring, was climbing, together with a com- 
panion, over this peak, when they came to a cave. Light- 
ing a rude torch they thoughtlessly entered it and had barely 
got well inside before they saw the two fierce eyes of a 
mountain lion glaring at them. Surprised and startled, 
they were about to turn and run, when the astonished ani- 
mal sprang past them and disappeared before they recol- 
lected they had a gun. 

It should not be overlooked that Ellis Peak is the most 
eastern mountain of the Sierran divide. East, its drainage 
empties into Lake Tahoe and thus eastward into the Big 
Basin; west, into the Rubicon, thence to the American, the 
Sacramento and finally out by the Golden Gate to the 
Pacific. 

To the west of the Rubicon Peaks is a chain of lakes in 
the valley below known as the Rock Bound Lakes. There 
are nine of these in all, though several of them are practi- 
cally unknown except to the few guides and the sheep-men 
who range over the surrounding mountains. 

As far as the eye can see, westward, there are distinct 
glacial markings, a wonderful revelation of the wide- 
spread and far-reaching activity of these glaciers borne on 
the highest crests of the Sierras. The canyon in which 
the Rubicon River flows is definitely outlined, as is also 
the deep chasm known as Hell Hole. Near by is Bear 
Lake, about the same size and appearance as Watson Lake, 
its overflow emptying into the Rubicon. 

Close at hand to the north and west are Barker's Peak, 
Barker's Pass, and Barker's Creek, and these decide us to 
go home by way of Barker's Pass instead of the way we 
came. Accordingly we drop down, returning a short dis- 
tance to the south, over the western slope of Ellis Peak to 
Ellis Valley. Both peak and valley receive their name from 
Jock Ellis, a Squaw Valley stay-behind, who entered the 



TRAIL TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION 183 

cattle and sheep business, and pastured his animals in this 
rich and well-watered region. 

On our way we pass through the most remarkable white 
fir nursery we have yet seen. Not far away were a few 
hoary monarchs from the still hanging but burst open cones 
of which winged seeds were flying before the breeze. These 
potential firs were carried in many cases over a mile before 
they found lodgement. It was a beautiful and delightful 
demonstration of Nature's lavish method of preserving this 
useful species of tree alive. 

Sweeping now to the north and east we make a rapid 
descent of some six hundred or seven hundred feet to Bark- 
er's Pass, the elevation of which is about 7000 to 7500 
feet, the nearby Peak having an elevation of about 8500 
feet. It is a round, bare mountain, and seems as if it ought 
to be marked higher (on the map) than it is. 

Rapidly dropping we come to a peculiar mass of stratified 
rock, acutely tilted, unlike any found elsewhere in the re- 
gion except on Five Lake Creek on the way to Hell Hole. 
Just before reaching Blackwood's Creek the trail passes 
through rude piles of breccia similar to that of the Devil's 
Playground near the Truckee River. It may be perfectly 
possible that one of the volcanic flows that covered large 
portions of the High Sierras, after the Cretaceous degra- 
dations had taken place, came from a vent, or volcano, near 
by, and slowly flowed down Blackwood Creek, leaving 
vast masses behind which have rapidly disintegrated until 
these are all that remain. 

These conjectures occupy our brain until we reach the 
Lake again, alongside of which the road soon brings us 
back to our starting point, after another most enjoyable, 
instructive, healthful and delightful day. 

The foregoing are but samples of a hundred similar trail 
trips that can be taken from every part of the Lake, and 



i84 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

from all the resorts. Each place has its chosen trips, and 
though, of course, there are many points of similarity, there 
are enough individualities to make each trip distinctive. 

My friends often ask me vi^hat food and drink I take 
along on such hiking or riding trips. Generally the hotel 
provides a luncheon, but personally, I prefer a few Grant's 
crackers (a thick, hard cracker full of sweet nutriment, 
made at Berkeley, Calif.), a handful of shelled nuts — 
walnuts, peccans, or almonds, a small bottle of Horlick's 
Malted Milk tablets, a few slabs of Ghirardelli's milk choco- 
late, and an apple or an orange. On this food I can ride 
or walk days at a time, without anything else. Grant's 
crackers, Horlick's Malted Milk tablets, and Ghirardelli's 
chocolate are the best of their kind, and all are nutritious 
to the full, as well as delicious to the taste. For drink I 
find Horlick's Malted Milk the most comforting and in- 
vigorating, and it has none of the after " letting-down " 
effects that accompany coffee drinking. 



CHAPTER XVI 

CAMPING-OUT TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION 

THERE are many trips in the Tahoe Region which 
can be made, with greater or lesser ease, on foot 
or horseback, in one day, so that one can sleep 
in his hotel each night. On the other hand there are some 
highly desirable trips that can be taken only by camping- 
out, and to these I wish to commend those of my readers 
of both sexes who are strong enough to care for such inti- 
mate contact with God's great-out-of-doors. 

To me one of Life's greatest delights, appealing alike to 
body, mind and soul, is a camping-out trip. Breathing day 
and night the pure air of mountain and forest, — occasion- 
ally swept by breezes from desert and ocean, — exercising 
one's body into vigorous healthfulness, sweating in the sun 
with life-giving labor, — even though it be only tramping 
or riding up and down trails, — sauntering over meadows, 
rambling and exploring untrailed spaces, under giant sky- 
piercing trees; lying down at night on the restful brown 
Mother Earth; sleeping peacefully and dreamlessly through 
delicious star-and-moon-lit nights, cooled and refreshed by 
the night winds, awakening in the morning full of new 
life and vigor, to feel the fresh tang of the air and the 
cool shock of the wash (or even plunge) in the snow-or- 
spring-fed stream; companioning with birds and bees, chip- 
munks and squirrels, grouse and quail, deer and antelope, 
trees and plants, shrubs and flowers, lava and granite, lakes 
and creeks, rivers and ponds; smelling the sweet fragrance 

185 



i86 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

of the trees, shrubs, plants and vines; bathing in an atmos- 
phere of calm and quiet that seems almost Divine; covered 
with a sky as cloudless and pure blue as the dome of 
heaven itself, and v^^hich, at night, changes into a rich blue- 
black velvet, studded vv^ith silvery emblazonments, that dance 
and dazzle in the pellucid air; listening to the varied voices 
of Nature, each eager to give tongue to its joy; eating 
healthful, simple food with appetite and relish; absorbing 
the assurance that Nature means good and nothing but 
good to man, thus coming nearer to the heart of God; los- 
ing the fret and worry of money-getting and all other of 
Life's lower ambitions and strivings; feeling the inflow of 
strength, — physical, mental and spiritual; gaining calm- 
ness, serenity, poise and power ; — is there any wonder that 
a man so blessed should speak and write with radiant and 
exuberant enthusiasm of that which has been so lavish to 
him. This is what camping-out (in part) means to me. 

Hence, when I leave home for a mountain trip I always 
put into my Indestructo ^ an extra blue flannel shirt, riding 
boots and breeches (or a pair of overalls), a cap, and a bottle 
of vaseline. The hunter and fisherman, of course, will 
bring his especial equipment, as, also, will the geologist or 
botanist. 

The first essentials of a successful camping-out trip are 
personal. One must have the receptive and acceptive spirit. 
No matter what comes it is for the best; an experience 
worth having. Nothing must be complained of. The 
" grouch " has no place on a camping-trip, and one who is 
a " grouch," a " sissy," a " faultfinder," a " worrier," a 

1 Indestructo Is the name given to a trunk that has been such a 
delight to me for its enduring and useful qualities, that I cannot 
refrain from " passing it on." A poor trunk, to a constant traveler, 
is a perpetual nuisance and worry. My trunks always gave me 
trouble until I got an Indestructo. Since then I have had freedom 
from all such distress. It is fully insured for five years. 



CAMPING-OUT TRIPS IN TAHOE REGION 187 

" quitter," or who cannot or will not enter fully into the 
spirit of the thing had better stay at home. 

If experiences are met with that are disagreeable, meet 
them as a man should ; a woman always does, — or always 
has on trips taken with me. The " self-pitier," the " self- 
indulgent," the " fearful " also had better stay at home. 

The next essentials are a good guide — such as is sug- 
gested by the Dedication of this book — and good saddle-and- 
pack-animals, good bedding, good food and the proper season. 
Then if the spot you have chosen contains anything worth 
while, you cannot fail to have an enjoyable, interesting, edu- 
cative, health-giving and generally profitable time. 

In outfitting for such a trip always put into your pocket 
(and in the pack a reserve supply) a few Grant's crackers, 
a handful of Horlick's Malted Milk tablets, and a cake of 
Ghirardelli's chocolate. With these you are safe for a whole 
day or two, or more, if anything should happen to separate 
you from your pack animal, or you should desire to ride on 
without stopping to prepare a noon, or later, camp meal. 

The Tahoe Region offers scores of just such trips, where 
for one or two months each year for a dozen years a visi- 
tor may camp-out in some new region. For instance, every 
student of God's handiwork should go up to Deer Park, 
camp-out at Five Lakes, and study the evidences of lava 
flows at the head of Bear Creek. Go to the Lake of the 
Woods and spend a week there, tracing the glacial move- 
ments that made Desolation Valley. Take such a trip as 
I enjoyed to Hell Hole on the Rubicon, but take more 
time for it than I could give; cross the range to the 
Yosemite, and thus link the two sublimest parts of the 
Sierras in your memory; follow the old trails that used to 
echo to the voices of pioneers from Michigan Bluff, Last 
Chance, Hayden Hill, etc. ; go out with one of the Forest 
Rangers and get a glimpse into his wonderful life of ac- 



i88 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

tivity, Independence and solitude. Thus you will come in 
contact with larger conceptions, fuller ideas, deeper sympa- 
thies, higher aspirations than is possible where you follow 
the ordinary routine of the ordinary, mediocre, self-contented 
man. Thank God for the spark of discontent, of ambition, 
of aspiration, of desire to see beyond, to know more, to climb 
higher, to solve the mysteries, to abolish the unknown. 

Then, if you dare the perils and joys of winter, get Bob 
Watson, or some other expert on snow-shoes to go with 
you over Tahoe's wild wastes of snow. Emulate Snow- 
shoe Thompson, a short sketch of whose life and adven- 
tures will be found in my book, Heroes of California, and 
henceforth the days and nights of spring, summer, fall and 
winter will never seem quite the same to you. 

Merely as a sample, the balance of this chapter is devoted 
to the trip made in the fall of 19 13 with Watson from 
Tahoe Tavern. 

TO HELL HOLE AND THE RUBICON RIVER 

I certainly think I can conjecture with accuracy the way 
it received its name. The trails in and out were first made 
and used by the wild animals — bear, deer, antelope, moun- 
tain lions, etc., then by the first Americans — the Indians, 
and at last, by the white man. Undoubtedly the first 
whites to come over the trails were miners from the George- 
town and Placerville districts, lured by the marvelous dis- 
coveries of the Comstock lode in Virginia City. Then in 
1862-3 came the Squaw Valley stampede and this " strike " 
being so much nearer than the Comstock naturally at- 
tracted much attention, especially as the California mines 
of the Sierra Nevada were becoming less profitable. One 
of these old miners, whose language was more luridly pic- 
turesque than refined, on coming into the region or going 
out of it, — when he struck the rough, rugged, uncertain, 




GLENBROOK ON THE NEVADA SIDE OF LAKE TAHOE 




THE STEAMER TAHOE, AT THE WHARF, JUST BEFORE START- 
ING AROUND THE LAKE 



CAMPING-OUT TRIPS IN TAHOE REGION 189 

rocky, and exceedingly steep grade, must have called it a 
" hell of a hole " to get into or out of, and in future refer- 
ences the name stuck until, at last, it was passed down to 
future ages on the maps of the U. S. Geological Survey as 
the true and correct name. 

But if the reader thinks the name in the slightest degree 
characteristic of the place itself he never made a greater 
blunder. Instead, it is a paradise of delightful surprises. 
A large, fairly level area — hundreds of acres at least — 
through which runs the clear and pellucid waters of the 
Rubicon River on their way to join those of the American, 
and dotted all over with giant cedars, pines, firs and live 
oaks, with tiny secluded meadows, lush with richest grasses, 
it is a place to lure the city-dweller for a long and profitable 
vacation. Whether he hunts, fishes, botanizes, geologizes or 
merely loafs and invites his soul, it is equally fascinating, 
and he is a wise man who breaks loose from " Society " — 
spelled with either a capital or small letter — the bank, the 
office, the counting-house, the store, the warehouse, the mill, 
or the factory, and, with a genial companion or two, buries 
himself away from the outer world in this restful, peaceful, 
and God-blessed solitude. 

When I first saw it I exclaimed: "Hell Hole? Then 
give me more of it," and instead of hastening on to other 
places of well-known charm, I insisted upon one day at 
least of complete rest to allow its perfection to " seep in " 
and become a part of my intimate inner life of remembrance. 

It was under Bob Watson's efficient guidance I left Tahoe 
Tavern, for a five day trip. We took a pack-horse well 
laden with grub, utensils for cooking and our sleeping bags. 
Riding down the Truckee, up Bear Creek, past Deer Park 
Springs, I was struck more forcibly than ever before by the 
marvelous glacial phenomena in the amphitheater at the 
head of the canyon through a portion of which the trail 



igo THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

passes, and also with the volcanic masses that rest upon the 
granite, mainly on the right hand side of the pass. Its first 
appearance shows a cap of from two hundred to three hun- 
dred feet in thickness; later on two other patches of it ap- 
pear, the upper one presenting the granite and superposed 
granite on, the same level, clearly indicating a channel of 
early erosion filled up by the later flow of volcanic matter. 

Passing by Five Lakes and down Five Lake Creek to its 
junction with the canyon down which we had come from 
the Little American Valley, we were soon headed down 
the creek for the Rubicon. To the right towered Mt. Mil- 
dred (8400 feet), on the other side of which is Shank's 
Cove. Shank was a sheep-man who for years ran his sheep 
here during the summer, taking them down to the Sacra- 
mento Valley in winter. After passing several grassy 
meadows, cottonwood groves, and alder thickets we reached 
Bear Pen Creek, a rocky, bone-dry crossing, nine miles 
from the divide. To the left, Powder Horn Creek comes 
in, which heads on the northwestern slope of the ridge, on 
which, on the southern side, Barker Creek has its rise. It 
received this peculiar^ name from the fact that General 
Phipps, from whom Phipps Peak is named, was once chasing 
a bear, when suddenly the infuriated animal turned upon 
him, made a savage strike at him with his paw and suc- 
ceeded in knocking the bottom out of his old-fashioned 
powder-horn. 

Further down we came suddenly upon a hawk who had 
just captured a grouse, and taken off his head. As the bird 
dropped his prey on our approach we took it as a gift of the 
gods, and next morning, with two or three quail, it made 
an excellent breakfast for us. 

Nearing the descent into Hell Hole we gained striking 
glimpses of a great glacially-formed valley in the moun- 
tains on the farther side, while a ridge to our left revealed 



CAMPING-OUT TRIPS IN TAHOE REGION 191 

a cap of volcanic rock apparently of columnar structure and 
extending from the eastern end half way the length of the 
ridge. 

Watson assured me that here he has found herds of six- 
teen and nineteen deer, on separate occasions. They seem 
to follow, in the early spring, the line of the melting snow. 
At this time they are tame and fearless, and will stand 
and look at you with surprise and impatience. They sel- 
dom run away. On one occasion he came upon a doe and 
two fawns not far from the brink or ridge of Hell Hole. 
He was close upon them before he was aware, but stopped 
suddenly. The doe saw him, but instead of turning to flee 
she stood and impatiently stamped her foot several times. 
Then as he seemed to pay no attention and to be harmless, 
she and her young began to graze again, and shortly disap- 
peared. 

Before long we arrived at what may be called the 
" jumping-off place." In reality it is a steep descent into 
the depths of a wide canyon, but earth has so lodged in the 
rocky slopes that they are covered with dense growths of 
trees and chaparral, so that it is impossible to see very far 
ahead. Down, down, down we went, winding and twist- 
ing, curving around and dodging, but getting deeper with 
every zig-zag until almost as suddenly as we began the 
steep descent we found ourselves on a fairly level platform. 
Hell Hole was reached. 

The day spent here was a delightful one. A^Hiile Wat- 
son fished I wrote, loafed, rambled about, studied the rock 
formations, and wished for a week or more instead of a 
day. 

Next morning we struck into the canyon of the Rubicon 
River, for Soda Spring, half a mile away, where salt and 
soda exude in such quantities as to whiten the rocks. Here 
the deer, bear, grouse, quail, ground-hogs, and other crea- 



192, THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

tures come for salt. Indeed, this is a natural " salt lick," 
and there are eight or ten piles of rock, behind which In- 
dian and white hunters used to watch for the coming of 
the game they desired to kill. Twenty years ago one could 
get game here practically every day. The Washoes used to 
descend the western slope as far as this; the men for deer, 
the women for acorns, though they had to be on the alert 
as the Sierra Indians resented their intrusion. 

Right and left as we rode on there were great " islands " 
of granite, fifty to one hundred feet high, masses that either 
had been hurled from the heights above in some cataclysm, 
or planed to their present shape by long-forgotten glaciers. 
These granite masses alternate with flower and shrub-be- 
strewed meadows that once were glacial lakes. At times 
we found ourselves in a dense forest where the trees were 
ancient monarchs, whose solitudes had never been disturbed 
by stroke of ax, or grate of saw. Clumps of dogwood and 
chaparral of a dozen kinds confuse the tyro, and he loses 
all sense of direction. Only the instinct that makes a real 
mountain and forest guide could enable one successfully to 
navigate these overgrown wilds, for we were now wander- 
ing up a region where trails had been abandoned for years. 
Here and there, when we came to the rocky slopes " ducks " ^ 
in confusing variety were found but scarce a sign of a trail, 
and the " blazes " on the trees were more confusing than 
if we had been left to our own devices. 

Yellow jackets' nests hung from many branches, and we 
were now and then pestered by the flying creatures them- 
selves. Then we had a good laugh. Our pack-horse, Sho- 
shone, got between two trees. His head could pass but his 
pack couldn't, and there he stood struggling to pull through. 
He couldn't do it, but stupidly he would not back up. 

1 Ducks are small piles of stone so placed as to denote the course 
of the trail. 



CAMPING-OUT TRIPS IN TAHOE REGION 193 

Talk about horse-sense! A burro would have backed up in 
a minute, but most horses would struggle in such a place un- 
til they died. 

Near here there came into sight a granite ridge between 
the Rubicon and Five Lake Creek. This grows higher un- 
til it becomes quite a mountain, between Five Lake Creek 
and Barker Creek. On the right McKinstry Peak (7918 
feet) towered up, with its double top, leading the eye along 
a ridge of red granite rock to Red Peak. 

About three miles up the canyon we found a number of 
rocky basins in the course of the Rubicon with water, eight, 
ten and more feet deep in them, temptingly suggesting a 
plunge. I didn't need much tempting, and as quickly as 
I could disrobe I had plunged in. What a cold, invigorat- 
ing shock it was. There's nothing like such a plunge for 
thoroughly arousing one and sending the blood quickjy 
coursing through his veins. 

Nearby were great beds of brake-ferns, four and five feet 
high, groves of immense alders, sugar pines, some of which 
were fully eight feet through and the trunks of which were 
honeycombed with woodpecker holes. I saw* and heard 
several woodpeckers at work. They had red top-knots, and 
the noise they made echoed through the woods more as if 
a sledge hammer had struck the tree than the bill of a bird. 
How they climb up the trunk of the trees, holding on in a 
mysterious fashion and moving head up or down, as they 
desire, with jerky little pulls, bobbing their heads as if 
emphasizing some remarks they were making to themselves. 

And what ideal spots for camping-out we passed, shady 
trees, nearby meadows, to give abundant feed for the 
horses, the pure waters of the Rubicon close by, with scen- 
ery, trees, flowers, animals, birds — all the glory of na- 
ture — surrounding one with objects of delight, interest and 
study. 



194 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

One large area was strewn with hundreds of thousands 
of the big long cones of the sugar pine. When one wishes 
to pack and ship home specimens of these and other cones, 
it is well to soak them in water. They then close up and 
carry safely, opening up as before, as they dry out. 

Then we passed some giant " wind falls," mainly spruces. 
The roots of these monarchs of the forest had twined them- 
selves around rocks of every size and shape, some of them 
massive bowlders, but when the storm came, the purchase, 
or leverage of the tall trees was so great that these heavy 
rock-masses were pulled out of place and lifted up as the 
trees crashed over to their fall. 

Now we came to a stretch of perfect virgin forest. No 
ax, no saw, no log chutes, no wagons, no dragging of logs, 
no sign of the hand of man. Nature was the only woods- 
man, with her storms and winds, her snows and rains, to 
soften the soil and uproot her growing sons and daughters. 
There was confusion in places, even rude chaos, but in and 
through and above it all a cleanness, a sweetness, a purity, 
a grandeur, harmony, glory, beauty and majesty — all of 
which disappear when destroying man comes upon the 
scene. 

About five miles up, we left the Rubicon and struck up 
toward Barker Creek. Here was another of the great, 
tempting granite basins, full of clear cool water. We also 
passed patches of belated scarlet larkspur, shooting stars, 
and glaring golden-rod. 

Half a mile up we reached Barker Creek, now a bowlder- 
strewn arroyo which aroused my covetousness to high de- 
gree. How I would love to build, with my own hands, 
a cottage, bungalow or house of some kind with these great 
bowlders, of varied sizes and colors, shapes and material. 

Just above the junction of Barker Creek and the Rubi- 
con is " Little Hell Hole," a camping-place almost as fa- 



CAMPING-OUT TRIPS IN TAHOE REGION 195 

mous as Its larger namesake, and noted for the fact that half 
a mile away is a small canyon full of mineral springs — 
sulphur, iron, soda, magnesia, etc. Naturally it is a " deer- 
lick," which makes it a Mecca during the open season to 
hunters. The springs bubble up out of the bed of the 
stream, the water of which is stained with the coloring mat- 
ter. When the stream runs low so that one can get to the 
springs he finds some of them as pleasant to the taste as 
those of Rubicon and Glen Alpine. 

As we got higher we left the spruces behind, and the 
junipers, covered with berries, began to appear. Then we 
came to open spaces where the wind began to sing in the 
tops of the pines. 

About a mile up Barker Creek, Watson showed me the 
course of one of his trails back to the Tavern. It ascends 
a formidable ridge and leads quickly to Idlewyld, but we 
were bound for Rubicon Springs. The old trail was in- 
accessible, but Mr. Colwell of the Springs had lately 
marked out a new trail, so we took our chances on finding 
our way somehow. Over windfalls, up and do^vn and 
around rocky promontories, we came to West Meadow 
Creek Wash, its rude bowlder-strewn course striking di- 
rectly across our path. Here we struck beds of brakes 
nestling in the shade of giant trees. On the left side of the 
creek where we were, we ran into dense clumps of wild- 
cherry which prevented further progress. Scouting found 
us an outlet on the other side of Barker Creek. The di- 
vide on the left towered up with rugged majesty, reddish 
in color, and split into gigantic irregular terraces, the 
taluses of which were all crowded with dense chaparral 
growths. 

On this side the slopes were all more open, nothing but 
rugged bowlders clinging on the bare surfaces. 

How enjoyable was this forcing our way along through 



196 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

these solitary wilderness places, so that I was really sorry 
when we finally dropped over a forested slope into the Ru- 
bicon Springs and McKinney's Road. A mile away we 
found the hotel, with Mr. and Mrs. Colwell. The build- 
ings are old but all nature is gloriously grand and beauti- 
ful. 

Though cordially invited to stay overnight, we pushed 
on over the Rubicon River, up the hill on part of the 
Georgetown road for a mile and a half, — from which we 
had a fine view of Buck Island Lake, — struck the trail for 
another mile and in the early afternoon made camp at Rock 
Bound Lake. Here we rowed and swam, studied the 
country from the nearby hills, and then slept the sleep of 
the healthfully weary under the blue vault of heaven. 

Though Rubicon Springs was not far away there was 
such an air of quietude in this spot that we felt as if we 
were in one of Nature's choicest retreats. 

Returning to Rubicon we followed the road back to 
where we had struck it the day before. The old trail from 
McKinney's used to come over the divide from the east and 
strike the Rubicon near where we then stood, pass by the 
Springs and then follow the river, but to avoid the steep 
grades the road had to be constructed around by Buck Island 
Lake. 

Those who ride into Rubicon Springs from McKinney's, 
just as they make the last descent, have a wonderful view 
of Georgetown Mountain before them. Its sloping side is 
glacially planed off at a steep angle, and it reveals the vast 
extent the great ice field must have covered in the days of 
glacial activity. Many bowlders near the Springs are very 
strongly marked by glacial action. 

About a mile from the Springs we came to a tree on which 
a " cut-off " sign was placed. When the road was being 
constructed the builders started a new grade at this point 



CAMPING-OUT TRIPS IN TAHOE REGION 197 

and after going for a mile or so found it was so steep that 
it had to be abandoned and a lesser grade found by going 
around. 

From the summit we could clearly follow the course of 
the Little Rubicon, and also secured an excellent view of the 
sharp point of Rubicon Peak (9193 feet). 

A stiff and cool breeze was blowing from the west so 
we were not sorry to find shelter from the wind as we en- 
tered a wooded park, where the song of the pines cheered 
us on our way. Soon we struck the road and followed it 
until we came to the headwaters of Miller's Creek on the 
right. Miller used to run sheep up in the meadows, which 
afford a smooth grade for the road for some distance. 
There are many alders here, which bear mute though pow- 
erful testimony, in the shape of their gnarled and bent over 
ground-groveling tnmks, of the heavy winters' snows. 

These meadows clearly were once glacial lakes, now filled 
up, and Miller's Creek was the instrument of their destruc- 
tion. Crossing the last of the meadows we came to Bur- 
ton's Pass, so called from H. D. Burton, another Placerville 
pioneer who used to cut hay here, pack it on mules to Mc- 
Kinney's, and then ship it across to Lakeside, where he sold 
it for $80 to $100 a ton. We then passed McKinney's old 
cabin, the place he built and occupied in 1863, before he 
went to live at the Lake. Only a few fragments now re- 
main, time and storms having nearly completed the work 
of destruction. 

Nearby was a beautiful lily pond, soon to be a meadow, 
and just beyond this we stood on the actual divide between 
the Great Basin and the Pacific. We were at the head of 
Phipps Creek, named on the map General Creek, from Gen- 
eral Phipps, At the mouth of the creek this pioneer located 
on 160 acres, which, when he died about 1883, was sold to 
M. H. de Young, of the San Francisco Chronicle. After 



198 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

holding it for many years he sold it in turn to L Hellman, 
the banker, who now uses it as his summer estate, having 
built a fine residence upon it. 

Near here we lunched at a sheep-herder's camp and heard 
an interesting story of the relocation of an old mine that 
had helped create the Squaw Valley excitement forty years 
before. Owing to new and improved methods of extract- 
ing the precious metal it is now deemed that this may soon 
develop into a paying property. 

Returning to the road we passed Jock Ellis's cabin, in a 
similar state of ruin to that of McKinney. Ellis Peak 
(8945 feet) is named after him. He was a Squaw Valley 
stampeder. Nearby we saw the largest tamarack I have 
yet found in the Sierras. It was fully five feet through and 
fluted in an interesting and peculiar fashion. 

From here we made a mile detour to visit Hank Richards 
Lake, a beautiful crystal jewel in an incomparable wooded 
setting. Then back to Phipps Creek, over a perfect jumble 
of granite bowlders and tree-clad slopes until we finally 
struck the trail and followed it to the Lake, and thence home 
to the Tavern. 

The reader should observe that In this, as in the chapter 
on " Trail Trips," only a sample is given of a score or 
more of similar trips. His host at any of the hotels can 
suggest others equally interesting. 



CHAPTER XVII 

HISTORIC TAHOE TOWNS 

THERE have been only three towns on the imme- 
diate banks of Lake Tahoe, viz., Tahoe City, 
Glenbrook and Incline, though Knoxville was 
located on the Truckee River only six miles away. 

Tahoe City. Tahoe City was founded in 1864 at the 
collapse of the Squaw Valley mining excitement, the story 
of which is fully related in another chapter. Practically 
all its first inhabitants were from the deserted town of 
Knoxville. They saw that the lumbering industry was ac- 
tive and its permanence fully assured so long as Virginia 
City, Gold Hill and other Nevada mining-camps remained 
profitable. The forests around the Lake seemed inexhaust- 
ible, and there was no need for them to go back to an un- 
certainty in the placer mines of El Dorado County, when 
they were pretty sure to be able to make a good living here. 
They, also, probably exercised a little imagination and saw 
the possibilities of Lake Tahoe as a health and pleasure 
resort. Its great beauty must have impressed them some- 
what, and the exploitation of these features may have oc- 
curred to them. 

Anyhow, in 1864, the Bailey Hotel was erected, and, 
later, a man named Hill erected the Grand Central. The 
Squaw Valley excitement had attracted a number from the 
Nevada camps, and when these men returned they took 
with them glowing accounts of the beauty of Lake Tahoe, 
and of the fishing and hunting to be enjoyed there. Thus 
the Lake received some of its earliest resort patronage. 

199 



200 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

During lumbering days it was an active, bustling place, 
being the nearest town to which the loggers, drivers, tree- 
fellers, millmen and others could flee for their weekly recre- 
ation and periodic carouses. Yet it must not be thought 
that the town was wholly given over to roughness. Helen 
Hunt Jackson, a widely traveled and observant woman of 
finest susceptibilities, says of the Lake Tahoe House, which 
she visited in stage-coach days, that it was " one of the very 
best in all California." It was the stopping-place of the 
elite who came to see and enjoy Tahoe, and until later and 
more fashionable hotels were built around the Lake enjoyed 
great popularity. 

As soon as the logging industry declined Tahoe City be- 
gan to go down, and only the fishing and tourist interests 
kept it alive. 

When the railway was moved over from Glenbrook and 
the shops and yard of the Transportation Company were 
established here it regained some of its former activity and 
life, and is now the chief business center on the Lake. It 
is the headquarters of the campers who come for pleasure 
each year, and its store does a very large and thriving busi- 
ness. New cottages are being erected and it is destined ere 
long to be a stirring pleasure resort town, for, as the de- 
lights of Tahoe become more widely known, every available 
piece of land will increase in value and where there is now 
one summer home there will be a hundred. 

Glenbrook. On the Nevada side of the Lake, Glen- 
brook used to be one of the most active, busy, bustling 
towns in the west. It scarcely seems credible to one who 
visits the quiet, placid resort of to-day that when I first saw 
it, some thirty years ago, it had three or four large saw- 
mills in constant operation, day and night. It was then 
regarded, and so designated in the History of Nevada, pub- 



HISTORIC TAHOE TOWNS 201 

lished in 1881, as " the great lumber manufacturing town 
of the state." 

The town was begun in i860, the land being squatted 
upon by G. W. Warren, N. E. Murdock, and R. Walton. 
In 1 861 Captain A. W. Pray erected a saw-mill, run by 
water-power, but as water sometimes failed, when the de- 
mand for lumber increased, he changed to steam-power. 
He also secured a thousand acres, much of it the finest tim- 
ber land, from the government, using in its purchase Sioux 
Scrip. 

Up to 1862 the only way to travel from California to 
Carson and Virginia City, south of Lake Tahoe, was by 
the Placerville road which came by Bijou and Lakeside and 
then over the Kingsbury Grade, via Friday's Station, after- 
ward called Small's, by which latter name it is still known 
on the maps of the U. S. Geological Survey. In 1862, 
however, a new road was projected, branching off to the 
northwest (the left) from Small's, and following the east- 
ern shore of the Lake, passed Zephyr Cove and Cave Rock 
to Glenbrook, thence by Spooner's and down King's Can- 
yon to Carson. This was called the Lake Bigler Toll 
Road (notice the fact that "Tahoe" was then officially 
designated in Nevada as "Bigler"), and was completed in 
1863. 

This demanded the opening of a better class of hotel for 
travelers and others in Glenbrook, and in the same year the 
road was finished Messrs. Winters and Colbath erected the 
" Glenbrook Hotel," which finally came into the hands 
of Messrs. Yerington and Bliss, who, later, were the build- 
ers of the railway, the owners of most of the surrounding 
timberlands, and who had practical control of the major 
portion of the lumber interests. But prior to this a lum- 
ber-mill was built by J. H. F. Goff and George Morrill 



202 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

in the northern part of the town. This did a good business, 
for even in those early days common lumber was worth 
$25.00 per thousand feet, and clear lumber, $45.00. The 
mill was soon destroyed by fire, but the site was bought by 
A. H. Davis and Son, who erected a new mill, which they 
operated for a while and then sold to Wells, Fargo & Co. 
It was not until 1873 that Yerington & Bliss came to Glen- 
brook. They revolutionized the lumber industry. While 
Captain Pray had long used a steam tug to raft logs across 
Lake Tahoe, the lumber itself was hauled down to Carson 
and Virginia City. Now, owning large areas of timber- 
land, operating two and then three saw-mills in Glenbrook, 
and several others in the nearby mountains, Messrs. Yer- 
ington & Bliss sought easier means of transportation for 
their merchandisable product. They constructed dams and 
reservoirs, with V flumes in a number of places, making 
them converge as near as possible at the Summit, some six 
miles from Glenbrook. To this point they built a narrow 
gauge railway for the purpose of transporting the millions 
of feet of lumber sawn at their mills. 

From Summit a large V flume was constructed down 
Clear Creek Canyon into Carson City, and into this flume 
a constant stream of water was poured from the reservoirs 
which carried upon its bosom another stream of boards, 
timber, studding, joists and sheathing, the two streams 
emptying simultaneously just outside of Carson City at a 
point on the Virginia & Truckee railway, where the lum- 
ber was loaded and thence shipped to its place of consump- 
tion. 

That tremendous amounts of lumber were being manu- 
factured is shown by the fact that the official records of 
Douglas County, Nevada, for 1875, give 21,700,000 feet 
as the product for that year. 

One department of the lumber business should not be 



HISTORIC TAHOE TOWNS 203 

overlooked in this connection. As the timber disappeared 
from the mountain slopes nearest Glenbrook, the operators 
were compelled to go further afield for their logs. These 
were cut on the mountain slopes north, south, east and 
west, and sent down the " chutes " into the Lake. Where 
the ground was level great wagons, drawn by ten, sixteen, 
twenty oxen, hauled the logs to the shore, where they were 
dumped into the water. Here they were confined in 
" booms," consisting of a number of long, thin poles fast- 
ened together at the ends with chains, which completely 
encircled a " raft " of logs arranged in the form of a V. 
The raft was then attached, by strong cables, to a steamer 
and towed to Glenbrook, where the mills were so located 
that the logs were drawn up from the Lake directly upon 
the saw-carriages. The size of some of the rafts may be 
imagined when it is known that they yielded from 250,000 
to 300,000 feet of lumber. 

The principal vessel for this purpose at the time I first 
visited Lake Tahoe in 1881 was an iron tug, called the 
Meteor. It was built in 1876 at Wilmington, Delaware, 
by Harlan, HoUingsworth & Co., then taken apart, shipped 
by rail to Carson City and hauled by teams to Lake Tahoe. 
It was a propeller, eighty feet long and ten feet beam, and 
cost $18,000. 

The first store erected in Glenbrook was placed on piles 
over the water. This was built in 1874, by J. A. Rigby 
and A. Childers. One morning the latter partner disap- 
peared, and it was surmised that he had fallen into the 
water and was drowned. New partners were taken into 
the firm, but in January, 1877, the store was burned, and 
it was not re-erected on its original site. 

When the lumber interests and the railway were removed 
Glenbrook declined, until it was the most deserted looking 
place possible. Then the sons of Mr. Bliss, one of whom 



204 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

was born there, cleared away all the evidences of its former 
lumbering activities, built a handsome and commodious mod- 
ern hotel on the most scenic point, and re-established the place 
as a choice resort on the Nevada shore, as described else- 
where. 

Incline. It will be a source of interest, even to many who 
know Lake Tahoe well, that there used to be a town 
named Incline on its shores. In the curve of Crystal Bay, 
a few miles from where the scars show where the water 
escaped from Marlette Lake flume, this town was located 
in 1882. It was the source of supplies for the lumbering 
interests of the Sierra Nevada Wood and Lumber Com- 
pany, and received its name from a sixteen-hundred feet 
incline up which lumber was hauled. The incline was 
operated by an endless cable, somewhat after the style o£ 
Mount Lowe, in Southern California, the car on one side 
going up, and on the other coming down one trip, and mce 
versa the next. The lumber thus raised was thrown into 
the flume, carried therein around to Lake View, on the line 
of the Virginia and Truckee railway, there loaded on cars 
and shipped to Carson and Virginia, largely for use in the 
mines. 

When the logging interests were active the place had quite 
a population, had its own post-office and was an election 
precinct. When the logging interests waned the town de- 
clined, and in 1898 the post office was discontinued. Now 
nothing remains but the old incline, grown up with weeds 
and chaparral. New towns are springing up at Al Tahoe, 
Lakeside and Carnelian Bay which will soon demand a 
revision of this chapter. 




LAKE TAIIi)]-: I'RUM TAH'OE TAVERN 




STEAMER TAIIOE ROUNDING RUBICON POINT, LAKE TvVHOE 





McKINNEY'S AND MOANA VILLA, WITH RUBICON PEAKS IN 
TLIE DISTANCE, LAKE TAHOE 




STEAMER LANDING, McKINNEY'S, LAKE TAHOE 



CHAPTER XVIII 

BY STEAMER AROUND LAKE TAHOE 

THE ride around Lake Tahoe is one of varied de- 
lights, as the visitor sees not only the Lake itself 
from every possible angle, but gains an ever shift- 
ing panorama of country, and, more remarkable than all, he 
rides directly over that wonderful kaleidoscope of changing 
color that is a never-ceasing surprise and enchantment. 

Tahoe Tavern is the starting point of the ride, the train 
conveying the passenger directly to the wharf from which 
he takes the steamer. Capt. Pomin is in control. 

Not far from where this, the most beautiful and charm- 
nig hotel of the Lake is erected, there used to be a logging 
camp, noted as the place from which the first ties were cut 
for that portion of the Central Pacific Railroad lying east 
of the summit of the Sierras. A number of beautiful private 
residences line the Lake for some distance, the area having 
been portioned out in acre and half-acre lots. Chief of 
these are the summer home of Professor W. T. Reid, for 
a time President of the State University of California, and 
Idlewyld, the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Kohl, 
of San Francisco. 

One of the oldest villas of this portion of the Lake used 
to be owned by Thomas McConnell, of Gait, and it was his 
daughter, Mary, who first made the ascent of one of the 
peaks now known as Maggie's Peaks, as a marble tablet 
placed there testifies. 

In the mountains beyond are Ward's Peak (8665 feet) to 
the right, and Twin Peak (8924) to the left, from the first 

205 



2o6 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

of which heads Ward's Creek, and the second Blackwood 
Creek, both entering the Lake two miles or so apart. Just 
beyond Twin Peak are Barker's Peak (8000 feet), and 
nearer to the Lake, Ellis Peak (8745 feet), the waters from 
the former making the South Fork of Blackwood Creek. 
Ellis Peak, being easily reached by a good trail, is the com- 
mon point of ascent from Homewood, McKinney's, Tahoe 
Tavern and other resorts. 

Six miles out from the Tavern, the first stop is made at 
Homewood, one of the newer resorts. 

Three and one-half to four miles further along is Mc- 
Kinney's, one of the oldest, best known and well established 
resorts on Lake Tahoe. It was founded by J. W. Mc- 
Kinney, who was first attracted to this region by the Squaw 
Valley excitement. (See special chapter.) For a time in 
1862-3 he sold lots on the townsite of Knoxville, then when 
the bottom dropped out of the " boom " he returned to 
Georgetown, engaged in mining, but returned to Tahoe in 
or about 1867, located on 160 acres on the present site and 
in 1 89 1 -2, after having erected two or three cottages, em- 
barked fairly and fully in the resort business. For several 
years his chief patronage came from the mining-camps, etc., 
of Nevada, Gold Hill, Virginia City, Dayton, Carson City, 
Genoa, etc. They came by stage to Glenbrook and thence 
across the Lake, on the small steamer that already was doing 
tourist business in summer and hauling logs to the lumber 
mills in winter and spring. Thus this resort gained its early 
renown. 

The bottom of the Lake may be seen at a considerable 
depth near McKinney's, and looks like a piece of mosaic 
work. The low conical peak, back of McKinney's is about 
1400 feet above the Lake and used to be called by Mc- 
Kinney, Napoleon's Hat. 

The next stop of the steamer is quite close to McKin- 



BY STEAMER AROUND LAKE TAHOE 207 

ney's, viz., Moana Villa, and a mile or so further on at 
Pomin's, the former an old established resort, and the latter 
an entirely new one. After passing Sugar Pine Point, 
Meek's Bay and Grecian Bay are entered. These two shal- 
low indentations along the shore line are places where the 
color effects are more beautiful than anywhere else in the 
Lake, and vie with the attractions of the shore in arresting 
the keen attention of the traveler. Meek's Bay is three 
miles long, and, immediately ahead, tower the five peaks of 
the Rubicon Range, some 3000 feet above the Lake. Be- 
yond, a thousand feet higher, is snow-crowned Tallac, — 
the mountain — as the Washoe Indians called it, the domi- 
nating peak of the southwest end of the Lake, 

Rubicon Point is the extension of the Rubicon Range 
and it falls of? abruptly into the deepest portion of the Lake. 
The result is a marvelous shading off of the water from a 
rich sapphire to a deep purple, while the shore on either side 
varies from a bright sparkling blue to a blue so deep and 
rich as almost to be sombre. Well, indeed, might Lake 
Tahoe be named " the Lake of ineffable blue." Here are 
shades and gradations that to reproduce in textile fabrics 
would have pricked a king's ambition, and made the dyers 
of the Tyrian purple of old turn green with envy. Solomon 
in his wonderful temple never saw such blue as God here 
has spread out as His free gift to all the eyes, past, present 
and to come, and he who has not yet seen Tahoe has yet 
much to learn of color glories, mysteries, melodies, symphonies 
and harmonies. 

Soon, Emerald Bay is entered. This is regarded by many 
as the rich jewel of Lake Tahoe. The main body of the 
Bay is of the deep blue our eyes have already become ac- 
customed to, but the shore-line is a wonderful combination 
of jade and emerald, that dances and scintillates as the 
breeze plays with the surface of the waters. 



2o8 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

A landing is made at Emerald Bay Camp, one of the 
most popular resorts of the Lake, and while at the landing 
the curious traveler should take a good look at the steep bank 
of the opposite shore. This is a lateral moraine of two 
glaciers, one of which formed Emerald Bay, as is explained 
in Chapter VHI, and the other formed Cascade Lake, which 
nestles on the other side of the ridge. 

At the head of Emerald Bay, also, is Eagle Falls, caused 
by the outflow of water from Eagle Lake, which is snugly 
ensconced at the base of the rugged granite cliffs some three 
miles inland. 

Four miles beyond Emerald Bay is Tallac, one of the his- 
toric resorts on the Lake. 

Tallac was originally Yanks. Yank was really Ephraim 
Clement, originally a Yankee from Maine, a stout, hearty, 
bluff man, who homesteaded his land, added to it until he 
owned about a thousand acres, and finally sold out to E. J. 
(Lucky) Baldwin. Baldwin had come over from Virginia 
City and seeing the great havoc made in the fine timber, of 
which he was very fond, exclaimed with an oath : " Some- 
one will be cutting this (the timber of Yanks) next," and 
then and there he began to bargain for the place. In 1878 
he bought, changed the name, and thenceforward Tallac 
became known. Little by little, as Yank had done, so Bald- 
win bought from sheep-men, squatters, and others until he 
had quite a holding. 

The hotel was built and in 1879 Sharp Brothers ran it. 
In 1880 Capt. Gordon was manager for a year, and in 
1 88 1 Baldwin gave a lease to Messrs. Lawrence & Com- 
stock who held it until 1914. 

Baldwin was a great lover of trees, and when the present 
hotel and cottages were built, not a single tree was cut with- 
out his express permission. Yet he had no foolish sentiment 
about the matter as is proven by the fact that all the buildings 



BY STEAMER AROUND LAKE TAHOE 209 

were constructed from local lumber produced in his own saw- 
mill, except the redwood used for finishing. The hotel as it 
now stands was completed in 1900. 

Gulls, pelicans and mud-hens can generally be seen In 
large numbers around the piers at Tallac, and the fleet of 
fishing boats, each with its one or more eager anglers, is one 
of the sights. 

The steamer stops here long enough to allow a few minutes 
ashore, and the visitors ramble over to the hotel, chat or 
chaffer with the Washoe Indian squaws who have their 
baskets for sale, or enjoy the grassy and shaded grounds. 

From the wharf at Tallac visitors for Glen Alpine, Fallen 
Leaf Lodge, and Cathedral Park take their respective stages. 
These three resorts are within a few miles and afford ad- 
ditional opportunities for lovers of the region to add to 
their knowledge of its scenic, botanic, arboreal and geologic 
features. Indeed such glacial experts as Joseph LeConte, 
John Muir, and David Starr Jordan have united in declar- 
ing that the region around Glen Alpine gives a better op- 
portunity for the study of comparatively recent glacial phe- 
nomena than any other known area. 

Adjoining Tallac on the east is the private residence of 
W. S. Tevis, of San Francisco. His beautiful yacht, the 
Consuelo, may generally be seen anchored here, when not in 
actual service. 

Half a mile from Tallac is The Grove, close to the Upper 
Truckee River, the main feeder of Lake Tahoe, and four 
miles further is Al-Tahoe, a new and well-equipped hotel, 
standing on a bluff commanding an expansive view of the 
Lake. It practically occupies the site of an old resort well- 
known as " Rowland's." It is near to Freel's Peak (10,900 
feet), which in olden days was known as Sand Mountain, on 
account of its summit being composed of sand. 

A mile and a half further along is Bijou, a pleasant and 



2IO THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

comfortable stopping place, while three miles further a 
picturesque rustic pavilion on the end of the pier denotes 
Lakeside Park, a well-known and long-famous resort. 
Forty-five years ago, or more, Capt. W. W. Latham built 
the famous State Line House at this point, and twenty years 
ago it came into the hands of its present owners. 

This is the most easterly of all the resorts and settlements 
at the south end of Lake Tahoe. It is in California, in 
El Dorado County, though its post-office is Stateline, the 
dividing line between California and Nevada. The Park 
is over 20(X) acres in extent and has already become the 
nucleus for a choice summer residence section. 

Leaving Lakeside Park the steamer now turns northward 
and follows the eastern or Nevada shore, until Cave Rock 
is passed and Glenbrook is reached. This is the only resort 
on that side of Lake Tahoe. Once the scene of an active, 
busy, lumber town, where great mills daily turned out hun- 
dreds of thousands of feet of timber for the mines of Vir- 
ginia City and the building up of the great historic mining- 
camps of Nevada, the magic of change and of modern im- 
provements has swept away every sign of these earlier activi- 
ties and left Glenbrook a quiet, delightful, restful resort, 
nestling in its own wide and expansive meadows at the foot 
of towering mountains that give a rich and contrasting 
background for the perennial beauty of the Lake. Practi- 
cally all that remains to remind one of the old days are the 
remnants of the logging piers and cribs, the school-house, the 
quiet " City of Those who are Gone," and further up the 
hills, the old railroad grade on which the logs were carried 
to the mill and the lumber taken through the tunnel, which 
still remains, to the flume by which it was further conveyed 
to the railroad at Carson City. 

Immediately to the right of Glenbrook, las the steamer 



BY STEAMER AROUND LAKE TAHOE 211 

heads for the wharf, can be seen the celebrated Shakspere 
Rock. John Vance Cheney, the poet, thus describes it: 

No sooner had the steamer been made fast than a ledge of 
rocks was pointed out to us, rising precipitously some dis- 
tance from the pier. " Can't you see it? " again and again 
asked our guide, renewing his endeavor to dispel our dis- 
tressing stupidity. At length " it " appeared to us, and we 
stood mute with astonishment. There, on the front of a 
bold cliff, graven with all the care of the best copies with 
which we are familiar, looked down upon us the face of 
Shakspere! As if in remembrance of her favorite son, here 
in this far wild region, nature had caused his features, cut 
in everlasting rock, to be hung on high, a fitting symbol of 
his intellectual sovereignty over the world. The likeness 
needs no aid from the imagination: it is life-like, recognized 
instantly, by the most careless observer, and, let it be added, 
never forgotten. The beard is a trifle longer than we are 
accustomed to see it, but this deviation does not detract from 
the majesty of expression becoming the illustrious original. 
The spacious forehead, the nose, even the eyes, all are ad- 
mirably represented. A more astounding surprise it has not 
been the writer's fortune to experience. The portrait looks 
as if it were made by moss growing upon the smooth flat 
surface of a huge rock; but we were informed that the face 
is all of stone, and has undergone no perceptible change 
since its discovery about five years since. [This was writ- 
ten in 1882.] A lady tourist from Massachusetts has, it is 
believed, the honor of first pointing it out. Nature cannot 
forget her Shakspere. So we all mused, and, musing, would 
have forgotten our dinners, had we not been summoned in- 
side the hotel. The repast was not peculiarly relishable; 
consequently, we had all the more opportunity to feed spirit- 
ually upon the masterpiece on the cliff, — the rock-portrait 
of Avon's, of England's, of the World's immortal bard. 

As the steamer leaves Glenbrook one may gain clear and 
distinct views of the four prominent peaks of the Nevada side. 
Above Lakeside, at the southeast end, is Monument Peak, 



212 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

then, about midway between Lakeside and Glenbrook is a 
sharp-pointed bare mass of rock known as Genoa Peak. Im- 
mediately behind Glenbrook is Dubliss Mountain (8729 
feet), so named after Duane Bliss, father and son, both of 
whom have done so much to make Tahoe known to the 
world. Marlette Peak is to the northeast, 8864 feet, with 
Snow Valley Peak, 9214 feet, a little to the South. These 
both overshadow Marlette Lake, a full description of which 
is given elsewhere. All these peaks afford excellent views of 
Lake Tahoe on the one side and of the valleys and mountains 
of western Nevada on the other. 

The steamer now continues along the Nevada shore, past 
the scars caused by the breaking of the Marlette Lake flume, 
by Crystal Bay and the site of the old town of Incline, 
around State Line Point to Brockway. 

This resort has been long and favorably known for its 
famous hot mineral springs. The hot water is piped to all 
rooms and private baths of the hotels and cottages, and is a 
great source of pleasure as well as health-giving comfort to 
the guests. 

We are now on the home-stretch, and soon after leaving 
Brockway (i^ miles away) and forty-five minutes (eight 
miles) from Tahoe Tavern, we reach Tahoe Vista. Here 
one is afforded a perfect view of the Lake and its snow- 
capped ranges east and south. 

Crossing Agate and Carnelian Bays the steamer's last stop 
is at Carnelian Bay. Here there is great building activity 
going on and many neat and commodious cottages and 
bungalows are being erected. 

Observatory Point is the last object passed before the 
Tavern is again reached. This name was given because of 
the fact that it was once the chosen site, by James Lick, for 
the observatory he contemplated building. This plan, how- 
ever, was never carried out, as it was shown to the philan- 




SXOWr,ALLIX(; IX JUNE, JULY AND Al'CUS'l', X1:AR THE 
SUMMIT OF "THE CRAGS," DEER PARK SPRINGS, 
LAKE TAHOE 




FISHING IN GRASS LAKE, NEAR GLEN ALPINE SPRINGS 




RUBICON POINT, LAKE TAHOE 




BROCKWAY'S HOT SPRINGS IIOTEP, LAKE TAHOE 



BY STEAMER AROUND LAKE TAHOE 213 

throplst that the cold weather of winter would work ex- 
ceeding hardship upon the astronomers without any com- 
pensating advantages. The result was the Observatory was 
finally established on Mt. Hamilton, and it is now a part of 
the great California University system. 

Thus the complete circuit of Lake Tahoe is made daily 
in summer by the steamer, and no matter how often the trip 
is taken it never palls upon the intelligent and careful ob- 
server. New glories and wonders are constantly springing 
forth as pleasant surprises and one soon learns to realize that 
here Nature indeed has been most prodigal in her scenic 
gifts to mankind. 



CHAPTER XIX 

DEER PARK SPRINGS 

WHILE in one sense all the resorts of the Tahoe 
region are mountain resorts, a difference should 
be noted between those that are located directly 
on the shores of Lake Tahoe, or some lesser lake, and those 
that are away from immediate proximity to a lake. The lat- 
ter type is more correctly designated mountain resorts, and of 
these are three in the Tahoe region, viz., Deer Park Springs, 
Rubicon Springs and Glen Alpine. All these resorts were 
discovered by following the trails of animals which were visit- 
ing them for " salt licks " that existed in connection with 
their mineral waters as related in the chapter on Glen Alpine. 
Deer Park is a private estate of approximately 469 acres, 
in two sections, one the Mineral Springs Section, consisting 
of nearly 309 acres, and on which the celebrated springs — 
two of soda, one of sulphur, and one of iron — are located, 
and the other, the Five Lakes Section, of 160 acres. The 
former begins a mile from the Truckee River, up Bear Creek 
Canyon. This was originally taken up from the Govern- 
ment as timber claims, but the timber has never been cut, and 
the great pines, firs and junipers remain as the original 
settlers found them. The Five Lakes section is a fascinating 
and attractive location two miles away, over the first divide 
of the mountains, and therefore looo feet higher than the 
Inn, where five glacial lakes nestle in their granite basin. 
Four of these, and a large part of the fifth, are included in 
the estate, while all surrounding is government land of the 

214 



DEER PARK SPRINGS 215 

Tahoe National Forest. If a dam were built to restrain 
the flow of water into Five Lake Creek, it would need only 
to be ten feet high to convert the five lakes into one, so near 
are they to the same level. 

As it is the flow from these lakes forms Five Lakes Creek, 
vi^hich empties into the Rubicon and thence into the South 
Fork of the American. 

Five Lakes afford excellent fishing and a log-cabin, three 
boats and fishing tackle are kept here throughout the season 
for the pleasure of guests. Those who disdain the ordinary 
accommodations of a hotel can here camp out, rough it, and 
make it their headquarters while climbing the adjoining 
peaks or exploring the ravines and canyons at the head of 
the American River. 

In 1914 a student from Stanford University was host at 
the Five Lakes log-cabin. He cooked for those who desired 
it, helped gather fir boughs for camp beds, prepared fishing- 
tackle for women anglers, rowed them to and fro over the 
lakes, and accompanied parties to the nearby summits. 
There are full accommodations at the cabin for seven per- 
sons, and the rule of the camp is that guests stay only one 
night, moving on to make room for the next comer, unless 
arrangements for a longer stay are made beforehand. Thus 
all the guests at Deer Park Inn may enjoy this novel ex- 
perience if they so desire. 

In the region of Five Lakes, Basque and other foreign 
shepherds may be found tending their flocks, and prospec- 
tors, with queer little pack-burros, who climb the mountains 
seeking the elusive gold, as they did in the days of '49. 

It was from Deer Park that the trail into the famous 
Hell Hole was recut by Miss Katherine Chandler, owner 
of the Inn and estate, in 1908, after having been lost for 
many years. Arrangements for this trip, and other famous 
hunting and fishing trips may be made at the Inn and many 



2i6 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

people who have gone over the mountains to the Yosemite 
have outfitted and secured their guide here. 

One of the finest trail trips of the Tahoe region is that 
afforded over the trail, back of Deer Park Inn, to the rugged 
pile known as The Crags, over Inspirational Ridge to 
Ward's Peak. In the early part of the season great snow 
banks are encountered, and when the flowers begin to bloom 
there are great fields covered with Sierran primroses, with 
many patches of white heather and beautiful cyclamens. 
This is but one of many fine trail trips that may be made. 

Deer Park Inn is one of the oldest and best established 
resorts of the Tahoe region. The house that I occupied on 
my short visit was a solid log cabin, full of romantic inter- 
est, for it was quaint, old-fashioned and appropriate to the 
surroundings. The key-note of the place is comfort. Un- 
der its present management a large number of wild New 
England flowers have been planted to add their beauty to 
that of the native California flower, and each year, about 
the third week in July, the guests wander over the sun- 
kissed slopes, climb the snowy heights and ramble through 
the shady woods gathering Sierran flowers of every hue, form 
and variety for an annual flower show. This is one of 
the distinctive features of the life at Deer Park Inn. 

It is an interesting fact here to notice that, when Miss 
Parsons, chief author of Flowers of California, was preparing 
that volume, she found such a wealth of mountain flora in 
the Deer Park region that she spent about as many weeks as 
she had planned for days. Other botanists have found 
it equally productive. 

To those who come early in the season toboganning and 
snow shoeing are not unusual experiences. The shady sides 
of the mountains offer these winter sports as late as June 
and early July, and many Californians who have never en- 



DEER PARK SPRINGS 217 

joyed the frolic of snow-balling come here to gain their first 
experience in this common eastern enjoyment. 

Elsewhere I have referred to the many evidences of glacial 
action found about a mile above Deer Park Inn. Still fur- 
ther up the canyon, on the trail going to Five Lakes, are 
interesting deposits of volcanic rock — andeside — so that 
these two geological phenomena may be studied close at 
hand. 

Having its own rich meadows on Bear Creek, the Deer 
Park Spring tables are always supplied with good milk and 
cream from its own dairies, while fresh fruit and vegetables 
are supplied daily. Fish and game in season are frequent, 
and the table being under the direct and personal super- 
vision of the management has gained an enviable reputation. 

Living water flows in marvelous abundance through Deer 
Park all throughout the year. Springs and melting snow 
send four different streams, tributary to Bear Creek, cours- 
ing across the property. The domestic water supply of the 
Inn is gained from springs on the mountain side, 800 feet 
above the Inn, and it is piped all over the place and to every 
cottage. 

There has been some talk, recently, of converting Deer 
Park into a private park. There is no better location for 
such a purpose in the whole Tahoe region. Situated as 
it is in the heart of a canyon it is readily isolated and thus 
kept entirely secluded and free from intrusion. While 
such a procedure would be a great advantage to any individ- 
ual or club who might purchase the estate, it would be a 
decided loss to the general public who for so many years 
have enjoyed the charms and delights of this earliest of 
Sierran mountain resorts. 



CHAPTER XX 

RUBICON SPRINGS 

ONE of the oldest and most famous resorts of the 
High Sierras is Rubicon Springs. It is nine miles 
from Lake Tahoe, at McKinney's, over a mountain 
road built many years ago, engineered so as to afford marvel- 
ously entrancing glimpses of the Lake and of the mountain 
scenery on either hand. Here are primeval forest, flower- 
strewn meadows of emerald, crystal streams and placid- 
faced glacial lakes in which snow-clad mountain summits 
are mirrored in quiet glory. The Rubicon River is one of 
the feeders of the American River, and the springs are lo- 
cated not far from its head waters. 

The Rubicon Springs were originally discovered and lo- 
cated upon by the Hunsaker brothers, two genuine explorers 
and adventurers whose names deserve to be preserved in 
connection with the Tahoe region. They were originally 
from the Hoosier state, coming to California in 1849, across 
the plains, by Fort Hall, the sink of the Humboldt, Ragtown, 
and by Carson Canyon to old Hangtown (now Placerville). 
They mined for several years. Then came the Comstock 
;excltement. They joined the exodus of miners for the 
Nevada mountains and were among the earliest to help to 
construct the Georgetown trail. Thus it was they discovered 
Rubicon. In 1869 they located upon 160 acres, built a 
log-house and established a stopping station which they called 
Hunsaker Springs. In the winter they rested or returned 
to Georgetown, making occasional trapping trips, hunting 

218 



RUBICON SPRINGS 219 

bear and deer, and the meat of which they sold. In those days 
deer used to winter in large numbers almost as far down as 
Georgetown (some fifteen miles or so), so that hunting them 
for market was a profitable undertaking in the hands of 
experts. 

They and John McKinney, the founder of McKinney's, 
were great friends, having worked together in the George- 
town mines. They soon made their places famous. Their 
mining friends came over from Virginia City, Gold Hill, 
Carson, etc., by way of Glenbrook, where they were ferried 
across Lake Tahoe by the old side-wheel steamer. Governor 
Stanford, to McKinney's. Then by pack trail over to Hun- 
sakers. 

For many years they used to cut a great deal of hay from 
the nearby meadows. A natural timothy grows, sometimes 
fully four feet high. A year's yield would often total fully 
thirty tons, for which the highest price was paid at the mines. 

There was another spring, beside Hunsakers', about a mile 
higher up, owned by a friend of the Hunsakers, named 
Potter. In time he sold this spring to a Mrs. Clark, who 
finally sold it back to him, when it was bought by Mr. R. 
Colwell, of Moana Villa. When the Hunsakers grew too 
old to run their place they sold it to a man named Abbott, 
who, in due time wished to sell out. But, in the meantime 
the railroad had surveyed their land, granted by Congress, 
and found that the springs and part of the hotel building 
were on their land, so that while Abbott sold all his holdings 
to Mr. Colwell, he could not sell the main objects of the 
purchaser's desire. An amicable arrangement, however, was 
made between all the parties at interest. 

Mr. Colwell is now the owner of all the property. 

For countless centuries the Indians of both west and east 
of Tahoe were used to congregate in the Rubicon country. 
They came to drink the medicinal waters, fish, catch deer 



220 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

and game birds, and also gather acorns and pine nuts. How 
well I remember my own visit to the Springs in the fall 
of 1 91 3. Watson and I had had three delightful days on 
the trail and in Hell Hole, and had come, without a trail, 
from Little Hell Hole up to Rubicon. The quaking aspens 
were dropping their leaves, the tang of coming winter was 
in the air, mornings and evenings, yet the middle of the day 
was so warm that we drank deeply of the waters of the nat- 
urally carbonated springs. No, this statement is scarcely 
one of fact. It was warm, but had it been cold, we, or, at 
least, I should have drank heartily of the waters because I 
liked them. They are really delicious, and thousands have 
testified to their healthfulness. 

We saw the station of the water company, where a man 
remains through the year to register the river's flow and the 
snowfall. Then we passed a large lily lake to the left, — 
a once bold glacial lake now rapidly Hearing the filled-up 
stage ere it becomes a mountain meadow — and were fairly 
on the Georgetown grade, the sixty mile road that reaches 
from McKinney's to GeorgetowTi. It is a stern road, that 
would make the " rocky road to Dublin " look like a " flow- 
ery bed of ease," though we followed it only a mile and a 
half to leave it for the steep trail that reaches Rock Bound 
Lake. This is one of the larger of the small glacial lakes 
of the Tahoe Region, and is near enough to Rubicon Springs 
to be reached easily on foot. 

From a knoll close by one gains an excellent panorama 
of Dick's, Jack's and Ralston's Peaks. Tallac and Pyramid 
are not in sight. The fishing here is excellent, the water 
deep and cold and the lake large enough to give one all the 
exercise he needs in rowing. 

On the summit of the Georgetown road one looks down 
upon the nearby placid bosom of Buck Island Lake. It re- 
ceived this name from Hunsaker. The lake is very irregu- 



RUBICON SPRINGS 221 

lar In shape, about a third of a mile long, and a quarter of a 
mile wide in its widest part. Near one end is a small island. 
Hunsaker found the deer swam over to this island to rest 
and sleep during the heat of the day, hence the name. 

The Little Rubicon river flows into Buck Island Lake and 
out again, and about two miles below Rubicon Springs the 
Georgetown road crosses the river at the foot of the lake. 

With these two lakes, and others not far away, fine hunt- 
ing and fishing, with several mountains nearby for climb- 
ing, the hotsprings, a fine table and good horses to ride it 
can well be understood that Rubicon Springs makes a de- 
lightful summer stopping-place. One great advantage that 
it possesses, under its present proprietorship is that guests 
may alternate between Moana Villa and the Springs and thus 
spend part of their time on the Lake and the other part in the 
heart of the mountains. The Colwells are hearty and home- 
like hosts, and are devoted to giving their many guests the 
greatest possible enjoyment, pleasure and health that a sum- 
mer's vacation can contain. 



CHAPTER XXI 

EMERALD BAY AND CAMP 

SITUATED near the southwest corner of Lake Tahoe 
is Emerald Bay, by many thousands regarded as the 
choicest portion of Lake Tahoe. Surrounded by so 
many wonderful scenes, as one is at Tahoe, it is difficult to 
decide which possesses surpassing power, but few there are 
who see Emerald Bay without at once succumbing to its 
allurement. Its geological history has already been given in 
Chapter VIII, in which it is clearly shown by Dr. Joseph Le 
Conte that it was once a glacial lake, and that the entrance to 
the main lake used to be the terminal moraine that separated 
the two bodies of water. As a natural consequence, there- 
fore, visitors may expect to find evidences of glacial action 
on every hand. They are not disappointed. The walls of 
the Bay, on both north and south, are composed of glacial 
detritus, that of the south being a pure moraine, separating 
the once glacial lake of Emerald Bay from Cascade Lake. 

Emerald Bay is about three miles in length, with a south- 
westerly trend, and half a mile wide. The entrance is 
perhaps a quarter of a mile wide and is formed by a tri- 
angular spit of sand, on which grows a lonp pine, on the one 
side, and a green chaparral-clad slope, known as Eagle 
Point, on the other. The Bay opens and widens a little 
immediately the entrance is joined. The mountains at the 
head of the Bay form a majestic background. To the south- 
west (the left) is Mount Tallac, with a rugged, jagged and 
irregular ridge leading to the west, disappearing behind t^vo 

222 



EMERALD BAY AND CAMP 223 

tree-clad sister peaks, which dominate the southern side of 
the Bay's head. These are known as Maggie's Peaks (8540 
and 8725 feet respectively, that to the south being the higher) , 
though originally their name, like that of so many rounded, 
shapely, twin peaks in the western world gained by the 
white man from the Indian, signified the well-developed 
breasts of the healthy and vigorous maiden. Emerging from 
behind these the further ridge again appears with a nearer 
and smoother ridge, leading up to a broken and jagged 
crest that pierces the sky in rugged outline. A deep gorge 
is clearly suggested in front of this ridge, in which Eagle 
Lake nestles, and the granite mass which forms the eastern 
wall of this gorge towers up, apparently higher than the 
nearer of Maggie's peaks, and is known as Phipps' Peak 
(9000 feet). This is followed by still another peak, nearer 
and equally as high, leading the eye further to the north, 
where its pine-clad ridge merges into more ridges striking 
northward. 

Between Maggie's and Phipps' Peaks the rocky masses are 
broken down into irregular, half rolling, half rugged foot- 
hills, where pines, firs, tamaracks and cedars send their 
pointed spires upwards from varying levels. In the morn- 
ing hours, or in the afternoon up to sunset, when the shadows 
reveal the differing layers, rows, and levels of the trees, 
they stand out with remarkable distinctness, each tree pos- 
sessing its own perfectly discernible individuality, yet each 
contributing to the richness of the clothing of the mountain- 
side, as a whole. 

Down across the lower portion of Maggie's Peaks, 100 
to 200 feet above the level of the Bay, the new automobile 
road has ruled its sloping line down to the cut, where a sturdy 
rustic bridge takes it over the stream which conveys the 
surplus waters from Eagle Lake to the Bay. On the other 
side it is lost in the rolling foothills and the tree-lined lower 



224 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

slopes of Cathedral Peak from whence it winds and hugs the 
Lake shore, over Rubicon Point to Tahoe Tavern. 

But Emerald Bay has other romantic attractions besides 
its scenery. In the early 'sixties Ben Holladay, one of the 
founders of the great Overland Stage system that reached 
from the Pacific Coast to the Missouri River, built a pre- 
tentious house at the head of the Bay. Naturally it was 
occupied by the family only part of the time, and in 1879, a 
tramp, finding it unoccupied, took up his lodgings therein, 
and, as a mark of his royal departure, the structure burned 
down the next morning. The site was then bought by the 
well-known capitalist, Lux, of the great cattle firm of Miller 
& Lux, and is now owned by Mrs. Armstrong. 

As the steamer slowly and easily glides down the Bay, it 
circles around a rocky islet, on which a number of trees 
find shelter. This island was inhabited at one time by an 
eccentric Englishman, known as Captain Dick, who, after 
having completed a cottage to live in, carried out the serious 
idea of erecting a morgue, or a mausoleum, as a means of 
final earthly deposit upon dissolution. This queer-looking 
dog-house might have become a sarcophagus had it not been 
for one thing, viz.. Captain Dick, one dark and stormy 
night, having visited one of the neighboring resorts where 
he had pressed his cordial intemperately, determined to re- 
turn to his solitary home. In vain the danger was urged 
upon him. With characteristic obstinacy, enforced by the 
false courage and destruction of his ordinarily keen percep- 
tion by the damnable liquor that had " stolen away his 
brains," he refused to listen, pushed his sail-boat from the 
wharf and was never seen again. His overturned boat was 
afterwards found, blown ashore. 




THE MARBLE TAHTJ-.T oX ()\E OF ^rAGGIE'S PEAKS, BEARING 

THE IXSCRII'TION: "FLEETWOOD PEAK, ASCENDED 

BY AIISS MARY McCONNELL, SEPT. 12, iSSg." 



^i ■'%'.'■'■ m 




THE ISLAND IN EMERALD BAY, LAKE TAHOE 




"WHISPERING PINES," AL TAHOE, ON LAKE TAHOE 




E. S. BROWN COTTAGE, AL TAHOE, ON LAKE TAHOE 



EMERALD BAY AND CAMP 225 

EMERALD BAY CAMP 

Emerald Bay is made accessible to regular summer guests 
by Emerald Bay Camp, one of the choice and highly com- 
mendable resorts of the Tahoe region. The Camp is located 
snugly among the pines of the north side of the Bay, and 
consists of the usual hotel, with nearby cottages and tents. 

Less than five minutes' walk connects it with the pic- 
turesque Automobile Boulevard, which is now connected 
with the Camp by an automobile road. The distance is 
four-fifths of a mile and hundreds of people now enjoy the 
hospitality of Emerald ■ Bay Camp who come directly to it 
in their own machines. 

Its location suggests many advantages for the angler, the 
famous Indian fishing grounds being located at the mouth 
of the bay. Cascade, Eagle, and the unfished Velma Lakes 
are easily accessible to trampers, the outlets from these fur- 
nishing sporty brook trout fishing. These streams and lakes 
are all stocked with Eastern brook, Loch Levin and cut- 
throat. The protected waters of the bay make boating safe 
and bathing a comfortable delight. 

But not all the beauty of nature and the advantages of 
excellent location can make a popular camp. There is much 
in the individuality of those who own or "run" it. Emerald 
Bay Camp is owned by Mr. Nelson L. Salter, for many 
years so favorably known in the Yosemite Valley. Such is 
its growing popularity that Mr. Salter has recently (1921) 
purchased another ten acres of adjoining land, thus enlarg- 
ing his frontage on the Bay to about 1000 feet, and giving 
him many more cottages for the entertainment of his guests. 

EAGLE LAKE 

From Emerald Bay Camp there are quite a number of 
interesting trail and climbing trips, one of the commonest 
of which is that to Eagle Lake. 

Taking the trail west, one zigzags to the north until the 



226 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Automobile Boulevard is reached. A half mile's walk brings 
one to the bridge over Eagle Creek. Here a few steps lead 
to the head of the upper portion of Eagle Falls, which dash 
down a hundred feet or so to the rocky ledge, from whence 
they fall to their basin, ere they flow out to join the waters 
of Emerald Bay. 

A few yards beyond the bridge the trail starts. It is a 
genuine mountain trail, now over rough jagged blocks of 
granite, then through groves of pines, firs, tamaracks and 
spruces, where flowers, ferns, mosses and liverworts delight 
the eyes as they gaze down, and the spiculae and cones and 
blue sky thrill one with delight as they look above, and where 
the sunlight glitters through the trees as they look ahead. 
To the right Eagle Creek comes noisily down, over falls 
and cascades, making its own music to the accompaniment 
of the singing voices of the trees. Now and again the creek 
comes to a quiet, pastoral stretch, where it becomes absolutely 
" still water." Not that it is motionless, but noiseless, cov- 
ered over with trees and vines, that reflect upon its calm sur- 
face and half hide the trout that float so easily and lazily 
through its clear, pure, cold stream. 

There is enough of climbing to call into exercise long 
unused muscles, the granite blocks are rough, angular and 
irregular enough to exercise eyes, hands and feet to keep one 
from falling, and the lungs are filled with balsam-ladened 
mountain-air, fresh from God's own perfect laboratories, 
healing, vivifying, rejuvenating, strengthening, while the 
heart is helped on and encouraged to pump more and more 
of its blood, drawn from long almost quiescent cells into the 
air-chambers of the lungs, there to receive the purifying and 
life-giving oxygen and other chemical elements that multiply 
the leucocytes vastly and set them at work driving out the dis- 
ease germs that accumulate and linger in every city-living 
man's and woman's system. 



EMERALD BAY AND CAMP 227 

Suddenly from a little rise the lake is revealed. Eagle 
Lake, or Pine Lake, or Spruce Lake, or Hidden Lake, or 
Granite Lake, or Sheltered Lake — any of these names would 
be appropriate. Almost circular in form — that is if you are 
not expected to be too rigidly exact in geometric terms — 
it is literally a jewel of lapis lazuli in a setting of granite 
cliffs. 

Here one may sit and rest, enjoying the placid waters of 
the lake, the rugged grandeur of the immediate cliffs, or the 
slopes of the towering mountains that encircle the horizon. 

Eagle Lake is but one of the hundred of glacially made 
Sierran lakes of the Tahoe region, but a study of its idiosyn- 
crasies would reveal distinctive and charming characteristics. 

CATHEDRAL PEAK 

There are two Cathedral Peaks at Tahoe, one above 
Cathedral Park on Fallen Leaf Lake, the other at the rear 
of Emerald Bay Camp. Early in the season, 191 4, three 
girls decided to climb this peak from the camp although there 
was no trail. One of them wrote the following account of 
the trip: 

The most interesting peak of the Rubicon ridge is Cathe- 
dral. The mountain rises directly back of Emerald Bay, 
some three thousand feet above the Lake. About six hun- 
dred feet above the camp there is a meadow where larkspur 
grows four and five feet high. But from Eagle Creek the 
aspect is quite different. There are no soft contours. 
Huge rocks pile up — one great perpendicular surface add- 
ing five hundred feet to the height — into spires and domes 
for all the world like some vast cathedral which taunts the 
soul with its aloofness. If, on some sunshiny afternoon you 
look up from the camp and see a ghost-moon hanging, no 
more than a foot above the highest spire, you must surely 
be " citified " if you do not pause to drink in its weird sub- 
limity and wild beauty. 

Many winters of storm and snow have loosed the rocks 



228 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

and carried them down the mountain. Those thrown down 
years ago are moss-covered and have collected enough soil 
in their crevices to nourish underbrush and large trees. 
But there are bare rocks along Eagle Creek to-day large 
enough for a man to hew a cabin from. Standing In awe of 
their size one surely must look curiously up the mountain 
to find the spaces they once occupied. Then, taking in the 
size of the peak it is equally natural that one should be 
filled with a desire to climb it and look down the other 
side and across the vista to the neighboring ranges. While 
we were getting used to the altitude we stood below admir- 
ing. Every evening we went out on the wharf, gazed up 
at its grandeur and discussed the best way to go, for though 
we knew we should have to break our own trail, we had 
decided to attempt the climb. We set a day and the hour 
for rising; the night before laid out our tramping clothes 
and religiously went to bed at eight. I doubt if any of us 
slept, for we were used to later hours and excitement kept 
us awake. 

As it was the first trip of the season, we lost some time at 
the start, admiring each others' costumes. Two of us ad- 
hered to the regulation short skirt and bloomers, but the 
third girl wore trousers, poked into the top of her high 
boots. This proved, by far, the most satisfactory dress be- 
fore the day's tramping was done. We got started at four- 
thirty. The first awakened birds were twittering. The 
shadows of the moraine lay reflected in the unruffled sur- 
face of the Bay. Gradually rosy flushes showed in the east. 
By the time we reached the meadow the sun rose suddenly 
above the Nevada mountains and some of the chill went 
out of the atmosphere. 

The meadow was flooded with snow-water. Beyond, the 
mountain rose by sheer steps of rock with slides of decom- 
posed granite between. We avoided the under-brush as far 
as possible, preferring to take back and forth across the 
loose granite. The wind came up as we left the meadow, 
grew in force as we climbed. Some one suggested break- 
fast, and then there began a search for a sheltered place. 
A spot sided by three bowlders away from under-brush was 
decided upon. By the time the fire was built the wind was 



EMERALD BAY AND CAMP 229 

a gale sending the flames leaping in every direction — up 
the rocks and up our arms as we broiled the bacon. 
Breakfast was a failure, as far as comfort was concerned. It 
was a relief when we finally tramped out the embers and 
resumed our journey. 

The top of a long snow-drift was a previously chosen 
land-mark. It was seven when we reached the top of it. 
Some one came out on the Bay in a row-boat — we were 
too high for recognition — thought better of it and went 
back. Towards the top we left the decomposed granite 
and underbrush behind, climbing the rocks in preference to 
the snow, where the choice was allowed us. The wind 
howled and shrieked, and blew with a force great enough 
to destroy balance, while its icy touch brought the blood 
tingling to our cheeks. 

At last we reached the summit. And oh! the joy of 
achievement. 

All Rubicon ridge and its neighbors, as far as the eye 
could see, were white with snow; the lakes in the valley be- 
low were still frozen — only one showing any blue. 
Clouds came up rapidly from the west, rushed by to the 
Nevada side where they piled up in great cumulous heaps. 
The apex of Pyramid was cloud-capped all day. Shifting 
gusts drove the waters of Tahoe scurrying first this way, 
then that. Where in the early morning every tree had 
viewed her image among the reflected tints of sunrise, at 
ten-thirty white-caps flashed and disappeared to flash in a 
different place among the everchanging eddies. Cascade 
and Fallen Leaf Lakes presented a continuous procession 
of white-caps to the east, while Eagle lay black and sinister 
in the shadow of Maggie's Peaks. 

After lunch, the wind blowing too cold for comfort, we 
started home, straight down — over snow, granite and under- 
brush — till we hit the State Highway. Here we found a 
sheltered place by a creek and talked over the day's happenings. 

Along the roadside we drew up a resolution on the satis- 
faction of the trip. The girl who had been cold all day 
didn't ever want to see snow again, but already the others 
were discussing a possible ascent from the Eagle Creek 
side — so great is the lure of the high places. 



CHAPTER XXII 

AL-TAHOE 

AL-TAHOE, four miles east of Tallac, is one of 
the newer, better and more fashionable and pre- 
tentious resorts recently established at the south 
end of the Lake. Its projectors saw the increasing demand 
for summer residences on the Lake, and realizing to the 
full the superior advantages of this location, thej^ divided 
their large holding into suitable villa and bungalow sites, 
and other lots, and readily disposed of a number of them to 
those who were ready to build. To further the colonizing 
plans of these chosen and selected purchasers a fine, modern, 
well-equipped hotel was erected, replete with every conven- 
ience and luxury that progressive Americans now expect and 
demand in their chosen resorts. The result is quite a settle- 
ment has grown up, and Al-Tahoe sees ahead an era of rapid 
growth and prosperity. Its homes are substantial and beau- 
tiful and indicate that John LeConte's prophecy, elsewhere 
quoted, is already coming to pass. Pasadena capitalists are 
behind the hotel and town project. 

Being advantageously located on the State and National 
automobile boulevard, and near to all the choice mountain, 
lake and other resorts of the southern end of Tahoe, it ap- 
peals to those who wish to combine equally ready access to 
civilization with the wnld ruggedness and infinite variety of 
many-featured Nature. 

It is situated on a high plateau, gently sloping from the 
bluff, with a Lake-frontage of about three quarters of a 

230 



AL-TAHOE 231 

mile. The land rises with a gentle slope to the edge of the 
terrace facing the stream, meadow, and mountains on the 
south. 

With no stagnant water, there are practically no mosqui- 
toes, and it is confessedly one of the most healthful spots of 
all this health giving region. Being on a lea shore, the cold 
air from the snowy summits of the mountains tempered by 
the warm soil of the foothills and level area, there is no place 
on the Lake better adapted for bathing and boating, espe- 
cially as the beach is sandy and shallow, sloping off for some 
distance from the shore. 

The accompanying photographs give some idea of the hotel 
and its cottages, together with some Al-Tahoe homes. The 
water supply for the town and hotel is gained from beauti- 
ful and pure Star Lake, 3000 feet higher than Lake Tahoe, 
and where snow may be seen during the entire year. The 
Al-Tahoe Company owns its own electric generating plant 
and supplies all the cottages with electric light. 

The hotel itself is conducted on the American plan, and 
in every modern way meets the requirements of the most 
exacting patrons. Amusements of every kind are provided, 
and there is a good livery stable and automobile garage. 

The town itself is being built up with a select class of 
summer residents. No saloons are allowed. There are still 
desirable lots for sale, and the Al-Tahoe Company, or L. H. 
Bannister, the Postmaster, will be glad to correspond with 
any who contemplate purchasing or building. Letters may 
be addressed to either at Al-Tahoe, Lake Tahoe, Calif. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

GLEN ALPINE SPRINGS 

THE earliest of all the resorts of the Tahoe region 
away from the shores of Tahoe itself, Glen Alpine 
Springs still retains its natural supremacy. Lo- 
cated seven miles away from Tallac, reached by excellent 
roads in automobile stages, sequestered and sheltered, yet 
absolutely in the very heart of the most interesting part of 
the Tahoe region, scenically and geologically, it continues to 
attract an increasing number of the better class of guests 
that annually visit these divinely-favored California Sierras. 
John Muir wrote truthfully when he said : 

The Glen Alpine Springs tourist resort seems to me one 
of the most delightful places in all the famous Tahoe re- 
gion. From no other valley, as far as I know, may excur- 
sions be made in a single day to so many peaks, wild gar- 
dens, glacier lakes, glacier meadows, and Alpine groves, cas- 
cades, etc. 

The drive from Tallac around Fallen Leaf Lake under 
trees whose boles form arch or portal, framing pictures of 
the sunny lake, is a memorable experience ; then on past Glen 
Alpine Falls, Lily Lake, and Modjeska Falls, up the deep 
mountain glen, where the road ends at the hospitable cot- 
tages, log-houses and spacious tents of Glen Alpine. 

Here is the world-famous spring, discovered in the 'fifties 
by Nathan Gilmore (for whom Gilmore Lake is named). 
Mr. Gilmore was born in Ohio, but, when a mere youth, 
instead of attending college and graduating in law as his 

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MURPHEY COTTAGE, AL TAIIOE, ON LAKE TAHOE 




PORTERFIELD COTTAGE, AL TAHOE, ON LAKE TAHOE 



GLEN ALPINE SPRINGS 233 

parents had arranged for and expected, he yielded to the lure 
of the California gold excitement, came West, and in 1850 
found himself in Placerville. In due time he married, and 
to the sickness of his daughter Evelyn, now Mrs, John L. 
Ramsay, of Freewater, Ore., is owing his discovery of Glen 
Alpine. The doctor ordered him to bring the child up into 
the mountains. Accompanied by an old friend. Barton 
Richardson, of the James Barton Key family of Philadel- 
phia, he came up to Tallac, with the ailing child and its 
mother. Being of active temperament he and Mr. Rich- 
ardson scaled Mt. Tallac, and in returning were much en- 
tranced by Fallen Leaf Lake. Later Mr. Gilmore came to 
Fallen Leaf alone, wandering over its moraines and linger- 
ing by its shores to drink in its impressive and growingly- 
overpowering beauty. In those days there was no road at 
the southern end of Fallen Leaf and the interested explorer 
was perforce led to follow the trails of bear, deer and 
other wild animals. Rambling through the woods, some 
two miles above the lake he came to a willow-surrounded 
swampy place, where the logs and fallen trees were clearly 
worn by the footprints of many generations of wild ani- 
mals. Prompted by curiosity he followed the hidden trail, 
saw where a small stream of mineral-stained water was 
flowing, observed where the deer, etc., had licked the stones, 
and finally came to the source in what he afterwards called 
Glen Alpine Springs. Scientific observation afterwards 
showed that the water had an almost uniform temperature, 
even in the hottest days of summer, of 39.6 degrees Fahr., 
and that there was free carbonic acid gas to the extent of 
138.36 cubic inches. The analysis revealed that each U. S. 
gallon contained grains as follows: 

Sodium Chloride ... 21.17 Ferrous Carbonate . . 1.8 

Sodium Carbonate .. 32.75 Alumnia 1.43 

Potassium Carbonate Trace Borates Trace 



234 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Magnesium Carbonate 9.96 Silica 2.50 

Calcium Carbonate.. 45.09 Organic Matter .... Trace 

Calcium Sulphate . . 4.10 

Total Solids 118.80 

The water is pleasant to the taste, and, as has been shown, 
highly charged with carbonic acid gas; its action is diu- 
retic, laxative and stimulative to the entire digestive tract. 
Eminent physicians claim that it is beneficial in dyspepsia, 
torpid liver, kidney and bladder irritation, and is also a 
tonic. 

Whether this be true or not I cannot say, but I do know 
that every time I go to Glen Alpine I drink freely and 
abundantly of the water, to my great physical pleasure and 
satisfaction. It is one of the most delicious sparkling 
waters I have ever tasted, as gratifying to the palate and 
soothing to the fevered mucous membranes as Apollinaris 
or Shasta Water, and I am not alone in the wish I often 
express, viz., that I might have such a spring in my back- 
yard at home. 

One result of this discovery was that Mr. Gilmore de- 
cided to locate upon the land. As soon as the first claim 
was made secure a rude one-roomed cabin was built and 
Mr. Richardson was the first guest. Preparatory to bring- 
ing his family, Mr. Gilmore added two more rooms, and to 
render ingress easier he built a road to intersect with the 
Tallac road at the northern end of Fallen Leaf Lake. As 
this had to be blasted out with black powder, — it was be- 
fore the days of dynamite, — Mr. Gilmore's devotion to the 
place can be well understood. 

When his daughters grew up, they and their friends came 
here to spend their summers, and by and by, almost uncon- 
ciously, but pleasantly and agreeably, the place became a 
public resort. Though Mr. Gilmore has long since passed 
on, having died in Placerville, Calif., in the year 1898, Glen 



GLEN ALPINE SPRINGS 235 

Alpine Springs is still in the ownership of his family, and 
its management and direction is entirely in their hands. 

As in the beginning they have ever sought to preserve its 
character of simplicity. It is their aim that everything 
should be as primitive as possible, consonant w^ith healthful- 
ness, privacy and comfort. While no sanitary precautions 
are neglected, and water, hot and cold, is extravagantly pro- 
vided, with free shower baths, there are none of the frills 
and furbelows that generally convert these — what should 
be — simple nature resorts into bad imitations of the luxuri- 
ous hotels of the city. There are positively no dress events. 
Men and women are urged to bring their old clothes and 
wear them out here, or provide only khaki or corduroy, 
with short skirts, bloomers and leggings for the fair sex. 
Strong shoes are required ; hob-nailed if one expects to do 
any climbing. Wraps for evening, and heavy underwear 
for an unusual day (storms sometimes come in Sierran re- 
gions unexpectedly), are sensible precautions. 

Sleeping out-of-doors is one of the features of the place, 
an invigorating, rejuvenating joy, which Mark Twain 
affirmed was able to destroy any amount of fatigue that a 
person's body could gather. Visitors are given their choice 
of a comfortable bed in the open, in a cottage, tent, or one 
of the main buildings. There are practically no rules at 
Glen Alpine save those that would operate in any respect- 
able home. No liquors are sold, and visitors are frankly 
told that " If they must have liquid stimulants they must 
bring them along." In order that those who desire to sleep 
may not be disturbed by the thoughtlessness of others, 
music is prohibited after ten o'clock. One of the delights 
of the place is the nightly camp-fire. Here is a large open 
space, close to the spring, surrounded by commodious and 
comfortable canvas seats, that will easily hold eight or ten 
persons, the blazing fire is started every evening. Those 



236 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

who have musical instruments — guitars, banjos, mandolins, 
flutes, cornets, violins, and even the plebeian accordion or 
the modest Jew's-harp — are requested to bring them. 
Solos, choruses, hymns and college songs are indulged in to 
the heart's content. Now and again dances are given, and 
when any speaker arrives who is willing to entertain the 
guests, a talk, lecture or sermon is arranged for. 

Three things are never found at Glen Alpine. These are 
poison-oak, rattlesnakes and poisonous insects. The rowdy, 
gambling and carousing element are equally absent, for 
should they ever appear, they speedily discover their lack of 
harmony and voluntarily retire. 

While the Glen Alpine resort is not situated directly on one 
of the lakes, it owns over twenty boats on eight of the near- 
by lakes, and the use of these is freely accorded to its guests. 
That it is in close proximity to lakes and peaks is evidenced 
by the following table, which gives the distance in. miles 
from the hotel: 



Miles 


Miles 


23^ Angora Lake 


zYz Gilmore Lake 


4 American Lake 


3^ Heather Lake 


6 Avalanche Lake 


3 54 Half Moon Lake 


3^ Alta Morris Lake 


5 Kalmia Lake 


7 Azure Lake 


I Lily Lake 


5 Center Lake 


254 Lucile Lake 


5j^ Crystal Lake 


IYa LeConte Lake 


5^ Grater Lake 


25^ Margery Lake 


6 Cup Lake 


54 Modjeska Falls 


4^ Cathedral Lake 


3^ Observation Point 


5>^ Echo Lake 


454 Olney Lake 


2 Fallen Leaf Lake 


454 Pit Lake 


554 Floating Island Lake 


6 Pyramid Lake 


454 Forest Lake 


4^ Rainbow Lake 


6 Fontinalis Lake 


2^ Susie Lake 


154 Glen Alpine Falls 


Zy2 Susie Lake Falls 


1% Grass Lake 


2^ Summit Lake 


4^ Grouse Lake 


6 Snow Lake 








CLU.S'J KK ()!• 'I KN'I S, MJ-.N ATJ'INE STRINGS 




GLEN ALPINE FALLS, NEAR GLEN ALPINE SPRINGS 




IN THE "GOOD OLD DAYS." GLEN ALPINE STAGE APPROACH- 
ING OFFICE AT GLEN ALPINE SPRINGS 



GLEN ALPINE SPRINGS 237 

Miles Miles 
4.y2 Tamarack Lake 2>^ Keiths Dome 

6 Tallac Lake 7 Pyramid Peak 

7 Tahoe Lake 63^ Ralston Peak 
6y2 Velma Lakes 3^ Richardsons Peak 

3% Woods, Lake of the 5 Upper Truckee River 

3>^ Angora Peak 4^ Mt. Tallac 

514 Dicks Peak 7 Mt. Agassiz 

Sy Jacks Peak 3 Cracked Crag 

As the proprietors of Glen Alpine ask : " Where else out- 
side of Switzerland is there a like region of lakes (forty- 
odd) and world of Sierran grandeur, such air with the tonic 
of altitude, mineral-spring water, trout-fishing, and camara- 
derie of kindred spirits!" 

While the foregoing list gives a comprehensive sugges- 
tion of the wide reach of Glen Alpine's territory there are 
several especial peaks and lakes that are peculiarly its own. 
These are Pyramid, Agassiz, Dicks, Jacks, Richardsons, 
Ralston, and the Angora Peaks, Mount Tallac, Mosquito 
Pass, and Lakes Olney, LeConte, Heather, Susie, Grass, 
Lucile, Margery, and Summit with Lake of the Woods and 
others in Desolation Valley, Gilmore, Half Moon, Alta, 
Morris, Lily, Tamarack, Rainbow, Grouse, and the Upper 
and Lower Echo. Desolation Valley and all its surround- 
ings is also within close reach. This is some four miles 
westward of Glen Alpine Springs, and is reached by way of 
easy mountain trails under sweet-scented pines and gnarled 
old junipers; besides singing streams; across crystal lakes, 
through a cliff-guarded glade where snowbanks linger until 
midsummer, ever renewing the carpet of green, decking it 
with heather and myriad exquisite mountain blossoms. 
On, over a granite embankment, and lo! your feet are stayed 
and your heart is stilled as your eyes behold marvelous 
Desolation Valley. Greeting you on its southern boundary 
stands majestic Pyramid Peak, with its eternal snows. 



238 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Lofty companions circling to your very feet make the walls 
forming the granite cradle of Olney, the Lake of Mazes. 
The waters are blue as the skies above them, and pure as 
the melting snows from Pyramid which form them. He 
who has not looked upon this, the most remarkable of all 
the wonder pictures in the Tahoe region, has missed that 
for which there is no substitute. 

The whole Glen Alpine basin, — which practically ex- 
tends from the Tallac range on the north, from Heather 
Lake Pass (the outlet from Desolation Valley) and 
Cracked Crag on the west and southwest, Ralston Peak 
and range to the south and the Angora Peaks on the east, 
— is one mass of glacial scoriations. Within a few stone- 
throws of the spring, on a little-used trail to Grass Lake, 
there are several beautiful and interesting markings. One 
of these is a finely defined curve or groove, extending for 
lOO feet or more, above which, about i^ feet, is another 
groove, some two to four feet wide. These run rudely 
parallel for some distance, then unite and continue as one. 
Coming back to the trail — a hundred or so feet away, — 
on the left hand side returning to the spring, is a gigantic 
sloping granite block, perfectly polished with glacial action, 
and black as though its surface had been coated in the proc- 
ess. Near here the trail ducks or markers are placed in a 
deep grooving or trough three or four feet wide, and of 
equal depth, while to the right are two other similar 
troughs working their winding and tortuous way into the 
valley beneath. 

In Chapter VHI an idea is given of the movements of 
the great glaciers that formed Desolation Valley and all the 
nearby lakes, as well as Glen Alpine basin. These gigantic 
ice-sheets, with their firmly-wedged carving blocks of 
granite, moved over the Heather Lake Pass, gouging out 
that lake, and Susie Lake, in its onward march, and then. 



GLEN ALPINE SPRINGS 239 

added to by glacial flows from Cracked Crag, the southern 
slopes of the Tallac range, and the Angora Peaks, it passed 
on and down, shaping this interestingly rugged, wild and 
picturesque basin as we find it to-day. How many cen- 
turies of cutting and gouging, beveling and grooving were 
required to accomplish this, who can tell? Never resting, 
never halting, ever moving, irresistibly cutting, carving, 
grinding and demolishing, it carried away its millions of 
millions of tons or rocky debris in bowlders, pebbles, sand 
and mud, and thus helped make the gigantic moraines of 
Fallen Leaf Lake. The ice-flow itself passed along over 
where the terminal moraine now stands, cutting out Fallen 
Leaf Lake basin in its movement, and finally rested in the 
vast bowl of Lake Tahoe. 

To the careful student every foot of Glen Alpine basin 
is worthy of study, and he who desires to further the cause 
of science will do well to make a map of his observations, 
recording the direction, appearance, depth, length and width 
of all the glacial markings he discovers. On the U. S. 
Government maps the stream flowing through Glen Alpine 
basin is marked as Eau Claire Creek. To the proprietors 
of Glen Alpine, and the visitors, the French name is absurd 
and out of place. No Frenchman has ever resided here, 
and if it was desired to call it Clear Water Creek, why not 
use good, understandable, common-sense English. At the 
request of those most intimately concerned, therefore, the 
name has been changed on the map that accompanies this 
volume, to Glen Alpine Creek, a name that " belongs " and 
to which no one can possibly have any objection. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

FALLEN LEAF LAKE AND ITS RESORTS 

FALLEN LEAF LAKE is a noble body of water, 
three and a half miles long and about one mile 
across. Why it is called Fallen Leaf is fully ex- 
plained in the chapter on Indian Legends. Some people 
have thought it was named from its shape, but this cannot 
be, for, from the summit of Mt. Tallac, every one instantly 
notices its resemblance to the imprint of a human foot. It 
is shaped more like a cork-sole, as if cut out of the solid 
rock, filled up with a rich indigo-blue fluid, and then made 
extra beautiful and secluded with a rich tree and plant 
growth on every slope that surrounds it. 

The color of the water is as richly blue as is Tahoe it- 
self, and there is the same suggestion of an emerald ring 
around it, as in the larger Lake, though this ring is neither 
so wide nor so highly colored. 

In elevation it is some 80 feet above Lake Tahoe, thus 
giving it an altitude of 6300 feet. 

At the upper end, near Fallen Leaf Lodge, under the 
cliffs it has a depth of over 380 feet, but it becomes much 
shallower at the northern or lower end near the outlet. 
Its surroundings are majestic and enthralling as well as pic- 
turesque and alluring. On the west Mt. Tallac towers its 
nearly 10,000 feet into the sea of the upper air, flanked on 
the south by the lesser noble and majestic Cathedral Peak. 
In the earlier part of the season when these are covered 
with snow, the pure white materially enhances the splendor 

240 




OLEN ALPINE FALLS 



FALLEN LEAF LAKE AND ITS RESORTS 241 

of both mountain and lake by enriching their varied color- 
ings with the marked contrast. 

To the southwest rise the Angora Peaks, and these like- 
wise catch, and hold the winter's snow, often, like Mt. Tal- 
lac, retaining beds of neve from year to year. 

To the geological student, especially one interested in 
glacial phenomena, the lateral and terminal moraines of 
Fallen Leaf Lake are of marked and unusual interest. 
The moraine on the east is upwards of lOOO feet high, and 
is a majestic ridge, clothed from the lake shore to its summit 
with a rich growth of pines, firs and hemlocks. Its great 
height and bulk will suggest to the thoughtful reader the 
questions as to how it was formed, and whence came all the 
material of its manufacture. It extends nearly the whole 
length of the lake, diminishing somewhat in size at the 
northern end. There is a corresponding moraine on the 
western side not less compelling in its interest though 
scarcely as large in size as its eastern counterpart. The 
terminal moraine, which is the one that closed up the lake, 
separating and raising it above the level of Lake Tahoe, is a 
less noble mound, yet geologically It allures the mind and 
demands study as much as the others. In Chapter VIII, 
Dr. Joseph LeConte's theories are given in full explaining 
the various glacial phenomena connected with this lake. 

The fish of Fallen Leaf are practically the same as those 
of Tahoe, though rod and fly fishing is more indulged in 
here. 

Boating, canoeing and the use of the motor boat are 
daily recreations, and swimming is regularly indulged in 
during the summer season. 

FALLEN LEAF LODGE 

The distinguishing characteristics of this resort are sim- 
plicity, home-likeness, unostentation. It makes its appeal 



242 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

cspcciall.v to the thoughtful and the studious, the not lux- 
uriously rich, those who love Nature rather than the ele- 
gance of a first-class hotel, and who desire to climb trails, 
study trees, hunt, fish, and generally recreate out-of-doors 
rather than dress and fare sumptuously. 

It is situated on the southwestern edge of Fallen Leaf 
Lake, five miles from Tallac, reached by a road that winds 
through the trees of the Baldwin estate, and then skirts 
the eastern and southern shores of the Lake. Stages — 
horse and automobile — run daily during the season and 
meet all the steamers at Tallac. 

The " Lodge " consists of a number of detached buildings, 
conveniently and picturesquely scattered among the pines on 
the slopes and at the edge of the lake. There are dining hall, 
social hall, post office, store, electric power-house, boat- 
house, with stables far enough away to be sanitary, and 
cottages and tents located in every suitable nook that can be 
found. There are one, two or three-roomed cottages, tents, 
single and double, all in genuine camp style. There is no 
elegance or luxury, though most of the cottages have mod- 
ern toilets, porcelain bath-tubs with running hot and cold 
water. Electric lights are everywhere. 

The camp has been in existence now (191 5) for seven 
years and each year has seen considerable enlargement and 
improvement, until now Fallen Leaf Lodge in the heart of 
the summer season is an active, busy, happy and home-like 
community. 

The table is wholesome, substantial and appetizing. 
There is no pretense at elaborateness. Home-cooking, well 
served, of simple and iiealthful dishes, in reasonable variety, 
is all that is offered. 

Needless to say there is no bar or saloon, though there 
is no attempt to compel a personal standpoint on the liquor 



FALLEN LEAF LAKE AND ITS RESORTS 243 

question upon those who are accustomed to the use of alco- 
holic liquors at meals. 

In its natural beauties and advantages Fallen Leaf Lodge 
claims — and with strong justification — one of the very 
best of locations. Fallen Leaf Lake is large enough to give 
scope to all the motor-boats, row-boats, canoes and launches 
that are likely to be brought to it for the next hundred 
years, and ten thousand fishermen could successfully angle 
upon its bosom or along its shores. For millions of Tahoe 
trout, rainbow. Eastern brook, Loch Levin, Mackinac and 
German brown have been put into this and nearby lakes in 
the last few years. While some jerk-line fishing is indulged 
in, this lake, unlike Lake Tahoe, affords constant recreation 
for the more sportsmanlike fly-fishing. 

Another of the special advantages of Fallen Leaf Lodge 
is its possession of a fine log-house and camp on the shore 
of Lake of the Woods, five miles away, in Desolation Val- 
ley. To those who wish to fish in greater solitude, to climb 
the peaks of the Crystal Range, or boat over the many and 
various lakes of Desolation Valley this is a great conveni- 
ence. 

Nothing can surpass the calm grandeur of the setting of 
this glorious beautiful water. Lying at the lower edge of 
Desolation Valley and facing stupendous mountains, the 
picture it presents, with Pyramid Peak reflected in its gor- 
geously lit-up sunset waters, is one that will forever linger 
in the memory. 

The close proximity of Fallen Leaf Lodge to Mt. Tal- 
lac. Cathedral Peak, the Angora Peaks, Mounts Jack, Dick, 
and Richardson, Ralston Peak, Keith's Dome, Maggie's 
Peaks, Tell's Peak, with the towering peaks of the Crystal 
Range — Pyramid and Agassiz — to the west, and Freel's, 
Job's and Job's Sister to the southeast, afford an abundance 



244 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

and variety of mountain-climbing that are seldom found in 
any region, however favored. 

But in addition to the peaks there are Sierran lakes ga- 
lore, rich in unusual beauty and picturesqueness, and most 
of them stocked with trout that compel the exertion of the 
angler's skill, as much as tickle the palate of the uncor- 
rupted epicure. Close by are Cascade, Cathedral, Floating 
Island, Echo, Heather, Lucile, Margery, Gilmore, Le 
Conte, Lily, Susie, Tamarack, Grouse, Lake of the Woods, 
Avalanche, Pit, Crystal, Pyramid, Half Moon, with the 
marvelous and alluring maze of lakes, bays, straits, channels, 
inlets and " blind alleys " of the Lake Olney of the ever- 
fascinating Desolation Valley. And those I have named are 
all within comparatively easy walking distance to the ordi- 
narily healthful and vigorous man or woman. For those 
who seek more strenuous exercise, or desire horse-back or 
camping-out trips another twenty, aye fifty lakes, within 
a radius of fifty miles may be found, with their connecting 
creeks, streams and rivers where gamey trout abound, and 
where flowers, shrubs and trees in never-ceasing variety and 
charm tempt the botanist and nature-lover. 

While to some it may not be an attraction, to others there 
may be both pleasure and interest in witnessing the opera- 
tions of the Fallen Leaf sawmill. This is situated on the 
western side of the lake, and is a scene of activity and bustle 
when logging and lumbering are in progress. On the hills 
about the lake the " fellers " may be found, chopping their 
way into the hearts of the forest monarchs of pine, fir and 
cedar, and then inserting the saw, whose biting teeth soon 
cut from rim to rim and cause the crashing downfall of trees 
that have stood for centuries. Denuded of their limbs these 
are then sawn into appropriate lengths, " snaked " by chains 
pulled by powerful horses to the " chute," down which they 
are shot into the lake, from whence they are easily towed to 




BOATING ON FALLEN LEAF LAKl". 




FALLEN LEAF LODGE AMONG THE PINES, ON FALLEN LEAF 

LAKE 





Copyrig-ht 19 lo, by Harold A. Parker. 

TAHOE MEADOWS, WITH MT. TALLAC IN THE DISTANCE 



FALLEN LEAF LAKE AND ITS RESORTS 245 

the mill. The chute consists of felled logs, laid side by side, 
evenly and regularly, so as to form a continuous trough. 
This is greased, so that when the heavy logs are placed 
therein they slide of their own weight, where there is a de- 
clivity, and are easily dragged or propelled on the level 
ground. 

I use the word propelled to suggest the interesting method 
used in these chutes. Sometimes ten or a dozen logs will 
be placed, following each other, a few feet apart, on the 
trough (the chute). A chain is fastened to the rear end of 
the hindermost log. This chain is attached to a single-tree 
fastened to a horse's harness. The horse is started. This 
makes the hinder log strike the next one, this bumps into 
the third and gives it a start, in its turn it bumps the fourth, 
the fourth the fifth, and so on, until the whole dozen are 
in motion. Had the string of logs been fastened together, 
the horse would have found it impossible to move them, but 
" propelling " them in this fashion they are all set in mo- 
tion, and their inertia once overcome there is no difficulty 
experienced in keeping them going. 

The views from Fallen Leaf Lodge are varied and beau- 
tiful, one in particular being especially enchanting. Over 
the Terminal moraine, across the hidden face of Lake Tahoe, 
the eye falls upon the mountains in Nevada, on the far-away 
eastern side. In the soft light of evening they look like 
fairy mountains, not real rocky masses of gigantic, rugged 
substance, but something painted upon the horizon with deli- 
cate fingers, and in tints and shades to correspond, for they 
look tenderer and sweeter, gentler and lovelier than any- 
thing man could conceive or execute. 

The owner of Fallen Leaf Lodge is Professor William 
W. Price, a graduate of Stanford University, who first came 
into this region to study and catch special Sierran birds and 
other fauna for the Smithsonian Institution, the American 



246 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Museum of Natural History, and the British Museum. 
Later, when he founded the Agassiz school for boys, at Au- 
burn, California, he established Camp Agassiz near Fallen 
Leaf Lake, in a grove of pines, firs, and cedars. Assisted 
by other university men he made of this an ideal open-air 
school and camp for boys. They were taught such practi- 
cal things as to take care of themselves in the mountains, 
find a trail, or go to a given spot without a trail, fish, hunt, 
make camp, build fires in a rain-storm, find proper shelter 
during a lightning-storm, carry a pack, pack a mule or burro, 
even to the throwing of the " diamond hitch," the ** squaw 
hitch," and the " square " or other packer's especial " knots " 
and " ties." They were induced to climb mountains, row, 
swim, " ski," and snow-slide, and all were taught to recog- 
nize at sight the common birds, smaller wild animals, trees, 
and flowers. Frequent 'camping-out trips were arranged 
for, and the youngsters thus gained health, vigor and perma- 
nent strength while doing what they all enjoyed doing. 

In due time the parents wished to share the fun, joy, and 
out-of-door experiences of their youngsters; then the 
friends, and those who heard about them, and out of the nu- 
merous requests for accommodations Fallen Leaf Lodge was 
born. For a time Mr. Price tried an ordinary hotel man- 
ager, but the peculiar and individualistic needs of his pe- 
culiar and individualistic camp at length led Mrs. Price 
and himself to take the complete control. From that time 
its success has been continuous. 

Mr. Price is a scientific expert upon the flora (especially 
the trees), the birds and the four-footed fauna of the whole 
region, and his readiness and willingness to communicate his 
knowledge to his guests is a great advantage to the studious 
and inquiring. 

Owing to the demands made upon his time by the man- 
agement of Fallen Leaf Lodge Mr. Price has transferred 



FALLEN LEAF LAKE AND ITS RESORTS 247 

his school into other hands, and has given up the Boys' 
Camp, though the lads are still welcome, with their parents, 
as regular guests at the Lodge. 

It should be noted that Fallen Leaf Lodge is but two 
miles from Glen Alpine Springs and that all that is said of 
the close proximity of the most interesting features of the 
southern end of the Lake Tahoe region to Glen Alpine, ap- 
plies with equal force (plus the two miles) to Fallen Leaf 
Lodge. 

CATHEDRAL PARK ON FALLEN LEAF LAKE 

One of the newest of the Tahoe region resorts is that of 
Cathedral Park, located on the western side of Fallen Leaf 
Lake. It was opened in the latter part of the season of 
19 12 by Carl Fluegge. Everything about it is new, from 
the flooring of the tents to the fine dining-room, cottages and 
stables. A special road has been constructed on the west 
side of the lake, over which Cathedral Park stages run daily 
the three and a half miles, to meet every steamer during the 
season at Tallac. 

Rising directly from the edge of the lake, surrounded by 
majestic trees, protected by the gigantic height of Mt. Tal- 
lac (9785 feet) from the vyestern winds, a clear open view 
of Fallen Leaf Lake and the thousand-feet high lateral 
moraine on the eastern side is obtained ; there could be no 
better location for such a resort. 

The distinctive features of Cathedral Park are simplicity 
and home-comforts, with special advantages for hunting, 
fishing and camping out. For ten years Mr. Fluegge has 
taken out some of the most distinguished patrons of the 
Tahoe region in his capacity as expert guide and huntsman. 
He knows every trail thoroughly and has scaled every moun- 
tain of the surrounding country. He knows the habits and 
haunts of bear, deer, and other game, and is a successful 



248 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

hunter of them, as well as of grouse and quail. His office 
and social-hall bear practical evidence of his prowess and 
skill in the mounted heads of deer, and the dressed skins of 
bear that he has shot. He is also an expert angler, and well 
acquainted with the best fishing in Granite, Eagle, the Rock- 
Bound, Gilmore and other lakes, as well as those closer at 
hand. There are twelve such lakes within easy reach of 
Cathedral Park. Fishing and hunting are his hobbies and 
delights, hence he makes a thoroughly competent, because in- 
terested, and interesting guide. Nothing pleases him more 
than to get out with his guests and assist them in their 
angling and hunting. To aid in this he has established his 
own permanent camp at the beautiful Angora Lakes, four 
miles from Cathedral Park, which is placed freely at the dis- 
posal of his guests. 

Especial arrangements are made for the perfect and sat- 
isfactory accommodation of guests who desire to sleep out of 
doors. Tents, sleeping porches and platforms are arranged 
with a view to the strictest privacy, and those who desire 
this healthful open-air mode of life can nowhere be better 
accommodated than here. As Mark Twain has said, it is the 
" open air " sleeping in the Lake Tahoe region that is so 
beneficial. Again to quote him : " The air up there in the 
clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And 
why shouldn't it be? — it is the same the angels breathe. I 
think that hardly any amount of fatigue can be gathered to- 
gether that a man cannot sleep ofF in one night here. Not 
under a roof, but under the sky." Therefore Cathedral 
Park says to those who wish to breathe the same air as the 
angels while they are yet on the earth: Come to us and we 
will meet your reasonable wishes in every possible way. 

The presence of Mrs. Fluegge, who is associated with her 
husband in the management, guarantees to ladies, whether 




PICTURESQUE PALO ALTO LODGE AT LAKESIDE PARK, 
LAKE TAHOE 




THE LONG WHARF AT LAKESIDE PARK, LAKE TAHOE 




AUTOMOBILE ROAD AROUND CAVE ROCK, LAKE TAHOE 



FALLEN LEAF LAKE AND ITS RESORTS 249 

unaccompanied, or with their families, the best of care, and 
the former are especially invited to come and test the home- 
like qualities of the place. 

The water supply of Cathedral Park is gained from its 
own springs, on the mountain side above the resort. It is 
piped down to every tent or cottage and the supply is super- 
abundant. Fish are caught almoet daily on the landing in 
front of the hotel. Fallen Leaf is an ideal spot for row- 
ing, canoeing, and launch rides, and the hotel owns its own 
launch in which parties are regularly taken around the lake. 
During the summer season bathing is as delightful here 
as in any of the seaside resorts of the Atlantic and Pacific, 
and almost every one takes a plunge daily. 

A camp-fire is built every night, where singing, story- 
telling, and open air amusements of an impromptu nature 
are indulged in to one's heart's content, though visitors are 
all expected to remember the rights of others and not keep 
too late hours. 

Informal dances are indulged in occasionally and every- 
thing is done to promote the comfort, pleasure and enjoy- 
ment of the guests that earnest desire, constant watchful- 
ness and long experience can suggest. 

The table is simple and homelike, but abundant, well- 
served and satisfactory. This department is entirely under 
the control of Mrs. Fluegge, who never employs any other 
than white help in the kitchen. Fresh fruit and vegetables, 
lake trout and game in season, fresh milk and cream, with 
everything of the best that the markets aiiford, are none too 
good for the guests at Cathedral Park. 

Unlike most of the Lake Tahoe resorts, it keeps open 
throughout the whole year, and is managed with but one 
idea, viz., to give absolute and complete satisfaction to all 
its guests. 



250 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Its rates are reasonable, and especial prices are given to 
children under ten years of age and to families who wish 
to stay for any length of time. 

The short trail to Mount Tallac rises directly from Ca- 
thedral Park, and all that has been said of the close prox- 
imity of Glen Alpine and Fallen Leaf Lodge to the most 
interesting peaks, lakes, etc., of the Tahoe region applies 
with equal force to Cathedral Park, plus the short addi- 
tional distance, which is something less than a mile. 

Mr. Fluegge will be glad to correspond with those con- 
templating a visit to Cathedral Park, especially should they 
desire his services for hunting, fishing, or camping-out trips 
of a few days or a month's duration. The address is Ca- 
thedral Park, Tallac P. O., Lake Tahoe, California. 



CHAPTER XXV 

LAKESIDE PARK 

SITUATED on the shore of Lake Tahoe and at the 
same time on the great Lincoln Highway stretching 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, — a division of the 
State Automobile Highway reaching from Sacramento, 
California, to Carson City, Nevada, via Placerville, Lake- 
side Park is readily reached by travelers from every direc- 
tion, whether they come by steamer, buggy, or automobile. 
The Lakeside Park hotel was established in 1892 and 
has an enviable reputation. It consists of hotel, with ad- 
jacent cottages and tents, comfortably furnished and 
equipped with every healthful necessity. Here surrounded 
by beautiful trees, that sing sweet songs to the touch of the 
winds, drinking in health and vigor from their balsamic 
odors, enjoying tlie invigorating sunshine and the purifying 
breezes coming from mountain, forest and Lake, swimming 
in the Lake, rowing, canoeing, climbing mountain trails, ex- 
ploring rocky and wooded canj'ons, iishing, hunting, bot- 
anizing, studying geology in one of the most wonderful 
volumes Nature has ever written, sleeping out-of-doors un- 
der the trees and the glowing stars after being lulled to 
rest by the soothing lappings of the gentle waves upon the 
beach — who can conceive a more ideal vacation-time than 
this. 

Unlike many parts of Lake Tahoe, Lakeside Park possesses 
a fine stretch of beautiful, clean, sandy beach. There are 
no rocks, deep holes, tide or undertow. Children can wade, 

251 



252 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

bathe or swim in perfect safety as the shore gradually slopes 
into deeper water. 

The whole settlement is abundantly supplied with pur- 
est spring water which is piped down from its source high 
on the mountain slopes to the south. The hotel is fully 
equipped with hot and cold water for baths and all other 
needed purposes, and there is a good store, well stocked liv- 
ery stable, row-boats, steam laundry and home dairy. 

The store carries a very complete line of provisions and 
supplies, fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy-produce, ice, 
hay, grain, lumber, shingles, stove-wood, paints, gasoline — 
in fact, everything that is likely to be in demand in such a 
community. Camp-fire wood is abundant and free to patrons. 
This is particularly advantageous for those who wish to 
tent and " board themselves." Housekeeping tents are pro- 
vided, on platforms in the grove, at reasonable rates, and the 
hotel owns its pasture in which the horses of patrons are 
cared for free of charge. 

The location of Lakeside Park in relation to Lake Tahoe 
is peculiarly advantageous in that it affords daily opportunity 
for driving, horseback-riding or walking directly along the 
shore for miles. Indeed the twelve mile drive to Glenbrook 
is one of the noted drives of the world, taking in the cele- 
brated Cave Rock, and giving the widest possible outlooks 
of the whole expanse of the Lake. 

Patrons of the hotel or camps are assured that there are 
no rattlesnakes, fleas, malaria, fogs, or poison oak. The 
character and tone of the place will also be recognized when 
it is known that saloons and gambling resorts are absolutely 
prohibited in the residential tract. 

The most majestic of all the mountains of Lake Tahoe 

* are closely adjacent to Lakeside Park. Mt. Sinclair, 9500 

feet, rises immediately from the eastern boundary, whilst 

Monument Peak, Mounts Freel, Job, and Job's Sister, rang- 



LAKESIDE PARK 253 

ing from 10,000 to 11,200 feet above sea level are close by. 
Such near proximity to these mountains gives unequalled 
opportunities for tramping, riding and driving through and 
over marvelous diversity of hill, valley, w^oodland, canyon 
and mountain. Scores of miles of mountain trails remain 
to be thoroughly explored and to the hunter these highest 
mountains are the most alluring spots of the v\''hole Tahoe 
Region. 

Yet vi^hile these mountains are close by Lakeside Park 
is near enough to Fallen Leaf Lake, Glen Alpine Springs 
and Desolation Valley to give fullest opportunity for trips 
to these noted spots and their adjacent attractions. 

In addition it allows ready incursions into Nevada, where 
the prehistoric footprints at Carson City, the marvelous 
Steamboat Springs, and the world-famed mines and Sutro 
Tunnel of Virginia City have been a lure for many thou- 
sands during the past decades. It is also near to Hope 
Valley and the peak on which Fremont climbed when, in 
1844, he discovered and first described Lake Tahoe, and is 
the natural stopping-place for those who wish to go over the 
road the Pathfinder made, accompanied by Kit Carson, his 
guide and scout, whose name is retained in Carson City, 
Carson Tree, Carson Valley and Carson Canyon, all of which 
are within a day's easy ride. 

PRIVATE RESIDENCES AT LAKESIDE PARK 

To meet the ever-increasing demand for lots on which 
to build summer homes on Lake Tahoe the Lakeside Park 
Company has set aside a limited and desirable portion of 
its large property on the southeasterly shore of Lake Tahoe 
for cottages and log cabins, bungalows and lodges, or acre 
tracts for chalets and villas. Already quite a number have 
availed themselves of this privilege and a colony of beauti- 
ful homes is being established. Mr. and Mrs. Hill, with a 



254 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

keen eye for the appropriate, and at the same time wishful 
to show how a most perfect bungalow can be constructed at a 
remarkably low price, have planned and erected several 
most attractive " specimens " or " models," at prices rang- 
ing from $450 to $1000 and over. The fact that the tract 
is so located in an actual, not merely a nominal, wooded 
park, where pines, firs, tamaracks and other Sierran trees 
abound, allow the proprietors to offer fine logs for cabins 
and rustic-work in almost unlimited quantities, and in the 
granite-ribbed mountains close by is a quarry from which 
rock for foundations, chimneys and open fireplaces may be 
taken without stint. These are great advantages not to be 
ignored by those who desire to build, and those who are 
first on the scene naturally will be accorded the first choice 
both of lots and material. 

There is but one Lake Tahoe in America, and as the 
men of California and Nevada cities find more time for 
leisure it will not be many years before every available spot 
will be purchased and summer residences abound, just as is 
the case in the noted eastern lakes, or those near to such cities 
as Minneapolis, etc., in the middle west. 

In setting aside this residential section at Lakeside Park 
the owners have planned with far-sighted and generous 
liberality. The Lake frontage is reserved for general use 
of the hotel guests and cottage community, so there will be 
no conflict regarding privileges of boating, bathing, fishing, 
and " rest cure " on the beach. Another wise provision is 
that a generous portion of the amounts received from early 
sales of lots is being devoted to general improvements that 
are for mutual benefit; such as the extension of roads, paths, 
trails and water-pipes, a substantial breakwater for better 
protection of launches and boats, larger dancing-pavilion or 
platform, automobile garage, more dressing rooms for bath- 
ers, etc. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

GLENBROOK AND MARLETTE LAKE 

IN Chapter XVI the history of Glenbrook is given in 
some detail. It is now, however, converted into a pleas- 
ure resort especially popular with residents of Nevada, 
and largely used by automobiles crossing the Sierras and 
passing around Lake Tahoe. 

The Inn, and its veranda overlooking the Lake, is built 
with an eye to comfort and convenience. Every need for 
pleasure and recreation is arranged for. For those who 
enjoy privacy, cosy cottages are provided, around which beau- 
tiful wild flowers grow in wonderful profusion. The guests 
here are especially favored in that the Inn has its own ranch, 
dairy, poultry farm, fruit orchard and vegetable garden. 
The table, therefore, is abundantly provided, and everything 
is of known quality and brought in fresh daily. 

Glenbrook Inn makes no pretense to be a fashionable 
resort. It especially invites those individuals and families 
who wish to be free from the exhausting " frivolities of 
fashion," to come and enjoy to the full Nature's simple 
charms, regardless of the city's conventions as to dress and 
fashion. Rest and recreation, amusement and recuperation 
are the key-notes. Simplicity of life, abundance of sleep, 
sufficiency of good food, tastefully served, the chief hours of 
the day spent in the open air, fishing, boating, swimming, 
trail-climbing, horseback-riding, driving or automobiling, — 
these bring health, renewed energy and the joy of life. 

The specific pleasures provided at Glenbrook are varied. 

2SS 



256 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

It is confessedly the best place for fishing on the Lake. 
During the season the fishermen from all the resorts at the 
south end of the Lake bring their patrons over in this di- 
rection. The Inn has its own fleet of gasoline launches 
and row boats, with experienced men to handle them, and 
it supplies fishing-tackle free, but those who wish to use the 
rod must bring that with them. As is explained in the chap- 
ter on fishing the trout of Lake Tahoe are taken both by rod 
and " jerk-line " trolling. Near Glenbrook, however, the 
rod can be used to greater advantage than anywhere else, 
and catches of from one-half to thirty pounds are of daily 
occurrence. 

While promiscuous fishing is not allowed now in the 
famous Marlette Lake, eight miles away, the patrons of 
Glenbrook Inn can always secure permits, without any vex- 
atious inquiries or delays, and there an abundance of gamey 
trout of various species are caught. 

The bathing facilities here are exceptionally good. There 
is a long stretch of sandy beach, which extends far out into 
the water, thus ensuring both warmth and safety to children 
as well as adults. 

In mountain and trail climbing Glenbrook has a field all 
its own. The ride or drive to Marlette Lake is a beautiful 
one, and the climb to Marlette Peak not arduous. The 
chief mountain peaks easily reached from Glenbrook are Du- 
bliss, Edith, and Genoa Peaks, which not only afford the 
same wonderful and entrancing views of Lake Tahoe that 
one gains from Freel's, Mt. Tallac, Ellis and Watson's 
Peaks, but in addition lay before the entranced vision the 
wonderful Carson Valley, with Mt. Davidson and other his- 
toric peaks on the eastern horizon. 

The drive along the shore by the famous Cave Rock to 
Lakeside Park or Tallac is one that can be enjoyed daily, 
and for those who like driving through and over tree-clad 




CT.KNP.ROOK INN, ON NF.VAOA STDK LAKE TATTOK 




SUNSI'.T AT CI.KNP.I^OOK, LAKi: TATTO 




Copyright, 1910, by Harold A. Parker. 



CARN ELIAN BAY, LAKE TAHOE 



/=~h 5S 



^■fc.- 



A 



Pi3» 



^m.-n, 



COTTAGE OVERLOOKING CARNELIAN BAY, LAKE TAHOE 



GLENBROOK AND MARLETTE LAKE 257 

hills, surrounded by majestic mountains, the drive over the 
Carson road is enchanting. 

It is at Glenbrook that the famous Shakspere head is to 
be seen graphically described by John Vance Cheney, and 
quoted elsewhere (Chap. XVI). 

TO MARLETTE LAKE FROM GLENBROOK 

Marlette Lake and Peak are two of the attractive features 
to visitors at Glenbrook Inn. The trip can be made in a 
little over two hours, and as on the return it is down hill 
nearly all the way, the return trip takes a little less. 

Leaving Glenbrook on the excellently kept macadamized 
road over which Hank Monk used to drive stage from 
Carson City, the eyes of the traveler are constantly observing 
new "and charming features in the mountain landscape. The 
Lake with its peculiar attractions is left entirely behind, with 
not another glimpse of it until we stand on the flume at Lake 
Marlette. Hence it is a complete change of scenery, for 
now we are looking ahead to tree-clad summits where eagles 
soar and the sky shines blue. 

About two and a half miles out we come to Spooner's, 
once an active, bustling, roadside hotel, where in the lumber- 
ing and mining days teams lined the road four, six and eight 
deep. Now, nothing but a ramshackle old building remains 
to tell of its former greatness. Here we made a sharp turn 
to the left, leaving the main road and taking the special Mar- 
lette Lake road. We cross the grade of the abandoned rail- 
way — the rails, engines and equipment of which are now 
operating between Truckee and Tahoe — see in the distance 
the tunnel through which the trains used to take the lumber, 
and notice on the hill-sides the lines of the old flumes which 
used to convey the water to the reservoir on the other side of 
the tunnel, or bring water and lumber ready to be sent on 
the further journey down to Carson City. 



258 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

My driver was In a reflective mood, and as he pointed 
these things out to me, made some sage and pertinent re- 
marks about the peculiar features of some industries which 
required large expenditures to operate, all of which were use- 
less in a comparatively short time. Mainly uphill the road 
continues through groves of cottonwood, by logged-over 
mountain slopes and sheep-inhabited meadows until the di- 
vide is reached. Here a very rapid down hill speedily 
brings us to the south edge of Marlette Lake. Skirting the 
southern end we follow the road to the caretaker's house, 
tie our horses, and walk down to the dam, and then on the 
flume or by its side to a point overlooking Lake Tahoe, from 
which a marvelously expansive view is to be obtained. We 
return now to Marlette and while drinking a cup of coffee 
prepared for us by the hospitable caretaker, glean the fol- 
lowing facts in regard to the history and uses of Marlette 
Lake. 

Marlette is an artificial lake, fifteen hundred feet above 
the level of Lake Tahoe, and about three miles from its 
easterly shore. Its waters are conveyed by tunnel, flume, etc., 
over the mountains, the Washoe Valley and up the mountain 
again to Virginia City. Originally the only supply of water 
available for Virginia City was from a few springs and min- 
ing tunnels. This supply soon became insufficient and many 
tunnels were run into hills both north and south from Vir- 
ginia for the express purpose of tapping water. These soon 
failed and it became necessary to look for a permanent sup- 
ply to the main range of the Sierra Nevada twentj^-five or 
more miles away. Accordingly the Virginia and Gold Hill 
Water Company called upon Mr. Hermann Schussler, the 
engineer under whose supervision the Spring Valley Water 
Works of San Francisco were constructed. After a careful 
survey of the ground he found water at Hobart Creek, in 
the mountains on the east side of Lake Tahoe, and in the 



GLENBROOK AND MARLETTE LAKE 259 

spring of 1872, received orders to go ahead and install a water 
system. He ordered pipe made to fit every portion of the 
route. It had to pass across the deep depression of Washoe 
Valley with water at a perpendicular pressure of 1720 feet, 
equivalent to 800 pounds to the square inch. 

The first operations were so successful that as needs grew 
the supply flume was extended eight and a half miles to 
Marlette Lake, thus making the total distance to Virginia 
City thirty-one and a half miles. This Lake was named 
after S. H. Marlette, formerly Surveyor General of Ne- 
vada, who was associated with W. S. Hobart, of San Fran- 
cisco, the owner of the land and one of the original pro- 
jectors of the Water Company. The site was a natural 
basin, the dam of which had been broken down or eroded 
centuries ago. A dam was built in 1875, and later raised 
eleven feet higher so as to afford more storage capacity. 
The area of the lake is now about 600 acres (before the 
heightening of the dam it was 300 acres), and its storage 
capacity is about two billion gallons. 

When the supply was enlarged a second pipe was laid 
alongside the first with an equal capacity, each being able to 
convey 2,200,000 gallons every twenty-four hours. A third 
pipe was installed later. The second and third pipes were 
laid by the late Captain J. B. Overton, who was Superin- 
tendent of the Company for over thirty-two years. Cap- 
tain Overton also extended the flume lines, constructed the 
tunnel through the mountain ridge, built the Marlette Lake 
dam and made many other improvements and extensions. 

On leaving Marlette Lake through an opening at the lower 
portion of the dam the water is conducted five miles in a 
covered flume and thence through a tunnel four thousand 
feet long through the summit of the dividing ridge or rim 
of the Tahoe basin to its easterly side. From this point it is 
again conducted through covered flumes, together with water 



26o THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

from Hobart Creek and other streams, to the intake of the 
pipes across Washoe Valley. These pipes are three in num- 
ber, two twelve inch and one ten inch. The difference in 
elevation between the inlet and discharge from No, i and 
No. 2 pipes is 465 feet. The difference in elevation between 
the inlet and discharge of No. 3 pipe is 565 feet. The pipes 
are laid across Washoe Valley in the form of inverted 
syphons. At the lowest point in the valley, the perpendicu- 
lar pressure is 1720 feet on No. i and No. 2 pipes and 1820 
feet on No. 3 pipe. The pipe lines go up and down nine 
canyons in their course across the Valley. Each line is 
something over seven miles in length. The pressure gauges 
at Lake View, the point of heaviest pressure, register 820 
lbs. on No. I and No. 2 pipes when filled, and 910 lbs. on 
No. 3 pipe when filled. 

When this work was first contemplated many hydraulic 
engineers condemned the project as impossible, as never be- 
fore had water been carried so far under such pressure. 
But the fact that the first pipes laid by Engineer Schussler 
are still in active use demonstrates the scientific and practi- 
cal knowledge and skill with which he attacked the problem. 

It is an interesting fact to note that, prior to the building 
of the dam, part of the water was used for " fluming " lum- 
ber and wood to Lake View, and also for a short period of 
time after the dam was constructed. But for the past 
twenty years this practice has been discontinued, the water 
being solely for the supply of Virginia City. The total 
cost of the work was about $3,500,000. The Company 
is now under the immediate and personal supervision of 
James M. Leonard. The flumes and pipe-lines have re- 
cently been rebuilt and repaired where necessary so that the 
entire system is in excellent condition and a. high state of effi- 
ciency. 



GLENBROOK AND MARLETTE LAKE 261 

DUBLISS, EDITH AND GENOA PEAKS 

The ride to these three peaks can easily he made in a 
day, and though they are all in reasonably close proximity, 
there are differences enough in their respective outloo'ks to 
make a visit to each of them enjoyable and profitable. With 
a good saddle-horse from the Glenbrook stables, a guide, and 
a lunch tied to the saddle, one may start out confident that 
a most delightful scenic trip is before him. The first hour's 
riding is over the rocky and tree-clad slopes, far wilder and 
more rugged than one would imagine, rudely bordering the 
Lake southwards. Then turning east, hills and vales, flow- 
ery meads and dainty native nurseries of pines, firs and hem- 
locks enchant the eye. Reaching the summit of any one of 
the peaks, a wide expanse of Lake is offered, extending to 
the surrounding mountains north, south and west, but on 
Genoa Peak an additional charm is found in the close prox- 
imity of the Nevada Valley, and mountains to the eastward. 
The contrast between the richly clad Sierras and the ap- 
parently unclothed, volcanic Nevada mountains is remark- 
able. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

CARNELIAN BAY AND TAHOE COUNTRY CLUB 

ON making the circuit of the Lake the last stopping- 
place on the trip starting south, or the first when 
starting north and east, is Camelian Bay. This 
is a new settlement rapidly coming into prominence because 
of the number of cottages and bungalows erected by their 
owners on their own lots. From early until late in the 
seasons of 19 13 and 19 14 the sounds of the saw and ham- 
mer were seldom still. The result is the growth of quite a 
summer settlement. Easy of access, either by train and 
steamer from Truckee, or by direct wagon or auto road via 
Truckee or the new boulevard from the south end of the 
Lake, Carnelian Bay attracts the real home-seeker. It has 
been the first section to fully realize what John LeConte 
has so ably set forth in another chapter on Tahoe as a Sum- 
mer Residence. With the completion of the state highway 
around Lake Tahoe and the projected automobile route from 
Reno and Carson City, Carnelian Bay will be adjacent to 
the main arteries of travel. The proposed link of the Lin- 
coln Highway around the north shore of the Lake will put 
Carnelian Bay directly on the great international auto road. 
The beauties of Lake Tahoe can hardly be magnified to 
the people of the West. Those who have once viewed its 
wonders and its magnificence, who have for a season breathed 
its invigorating and stimulating atmosphere, who have caught 
the wily trout which abound in its waters, who have sailed, 
or rowed, or motor-boated over its indigo-blue surface, carry 

262 



CARNELIAN BAY 263 

In memory pictures in comparison with which any word-pic- 
ture would be inadequate and incomplete. 

Hence the projectors of Carnelian Bay struck a popular 
note when, out of their 81 -acre tract, they put on sale con- 
venient-sized lots. Of these 75 were purchased almost im- 
mediately, and by 19 14 there were over 45 homes, large and 
small, already erected. Every lot was sold to a purchaser 
who expressed his definite intention of speedily erecting a 
house, cottage or bungalow for his own use. Hence the 
community is of a selected class into which one may come 
with confidence and assurance of congenial associations. 

While there is no hotel at present there are several cot- 
tages and bungalows especially erected for rent to transient 
guests, and a good store, together with its close proximity 
to Tahoe City and Tahoe Tavern, render a summer vacation 
here one of comfort, pleasure and perfect enjoyment. 

PROJECTED TAHOE COUNTRY CLUB AT CARNELIAN 

The increasing need exists among those who are familiar 
with the beauties and advantages of Lake Tahoe as a summer 
residence resort for accommodations for families or tran- 
sients where the usual comforts of home may be obtained at 
a cost not prohibitive to the family of ordinary means. Last 
year no less than 80,000 persons visited Lake Tahoe. It is 
safe to say that this number will increase annually, particu- 
larly with added accommodations at the Lake and with better 
facilities for automobile travel. The proximity of Lake Ta- 
hoe to the coast cities and the cities of the Sierras and the 
Middle West makes it at once attractive to the business man 
who desires to spend his summer vacation where the family 
is located for the summer months. 

The Tahoe Country Club is designed to meet the need. 
The incorporators have taken over in fee simple a beauti- 
ful tract embracing about 1500 feet of the beach at Carnelian 



264 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Bay, California, perhaps the most attractive site on Lake Ta- 
hoe. It commands 'a view of the entire length of the Lake, 
looking tow^ard the south, and embracing a magnificent pano- 
ramic view of the mountains beyond. This site contains ap- 
proximately nine acres, and includes a natural inland harbor, 
making off from a protected bay. The beach is shallow, of 
clean sand, sloping down from easy terraces beautified by 
shade trees and lawns. 

The plan of organization of the Tahoe Country Club is 
cooperative. Its benefits are to be shared by its members, 
their families, and such of their friends as they may invite 
to be guests of the club. The properties taken over by the 
incorporation, including the 1500 feet of beach front, harbor, 
wharf, and a system of water works already installed, to- 
gether with the perpetual title to the water rights, is con- 
servatively appraised at $30,000. This is held in fee, free 
from incumbrance. 

The charter- or organizing-members of the club will be 
the investors in the bonds issued and secured on the real es- 
tate taken over by the incorporation. This bond issue, the 
redemption of which will be guaranteed by first mortgage 
on the properties, will be for $20,000. These will be in de- 
nominations of $100 each, bearing six per cent, interest after 
two years from June i, 1914, and will be redeemable, at the 
option of the mortgagor, at any regular annual interest 
period on or after five years from the date of issue. They 
will be payable in fifteen years. 

Each original bond purchaser becomes a charter life mem- 
ber of the club, entitled, without the payment of annual dues 
or other assessments, to the privileges and benefits offered. 
These, briefly, aside from the natural advantages of location, 
scenery, etc., are an assured congenial environment, known 
associations (not always a possibility in a public summer ho- 
tel), the absence of every possible unpleasant influence, op- 












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LAUNCH TOWIXG BOATS OUT TO THE FISHTXG GROUNDS, 
LAKE TAHOE 




AN EARLY MORNING CATCH, TAHOE TROUT, LAKE TAHOE 



CARNELIAN BAY 265 

portunities for fishing, boating, tennis, golf and other out- 
door sports, and first-class accommodations at a cost far be- 
low that charged at regular high-class summer hotels. 

The proceeds of the bond issue are to be devoted to the 
erection of the first unit of the club's buildings, consisting 
of the club house proper, and probably six four-room cottages 
adjacent. Thus the value of the real estate securing the 
bonds will at once be enhanced virtually to the full extent 
of the investment made by the charter members. 

With the initial buildings assured and in process of erec- 
tion, the membership and patronage of the club will be aug- 
mented by extending the privileges of the organization to 
non-investors, who will be enrolled upon payment of a fixed 
membership charge. These associate members, like the char- 
ter members, will enjoy the privileges offered for themselves 
and their families and for such of their friends as they may 
desire to recommend, and for whom limited-period guest- 
cards are requested. 

With a membership so broadly scattered as will be the 
membership of this club, community control of its affairs 
would be impracticable, if not impossible. It has been de- 
cided, therefore, to vest the supervisory control of the club 
in a self-perpetuating advisory board, composed of many of 
the most prominent citizens of Nevada and California. 

The plan proposed is a feasible and practicable one, and 
one that ought to appeal to nature lovers who desire just 
such opportunities as it will afford on Lake Tahoe. The 
president of the company and the directing genius who has 
made Carnelian Bay possible is L. P. Delano, of Reno, Ne- 
vada, to whom all requests for further particulars regard- 
ing the Tahoe Country Club, or of Carnelian Bay should 
be addressed. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

FISHING IN THE LAKES OF THE TAHOE REGION 

FISHING in Lake Tahoe, and the other lakes of the 
region is a pleasure and a recreation as well as an art 
and a science. There are laymen, tyros, neophytes, 
proficients and artists. The real fraternity has passes, catch- 
words, grips and signals to which outsiders seek to " catch 
on " in vain. 

The chief native trout of Lake Tahoe is locally known as 
the " cut-throat," because of a brilliant dash of red on either 
side of the throat. The name, however, gives no hint of the 
exquisite beauty of the markings of the fish, the skill required 
and excitement developed in catching it, and the dainty de- 
liciousness of its flesh when properly cooked. 

Owing to the wonderful adaptability of Lake Tahoe, and 
the lakes and brooks of the surrounding region, to fish life, 
several other well-known varieties have been introduced, all 
of which have thrived abundantly and now afford oppor- 
tunity for the skill of the fisherman and delight the palate of 
the connoisseur. These are the Mackinac, rainbow, eastern 
brook, and Loch Levin. There is also found a beautiful and 
dainty silver trout, along the shore where the cold waters 
of the various brooks or creeks flow into Lake Tahoe (and 
also in some of the smaller lakes), that is much prized. 
Some fishermen claim that it is the " prettiest, gamiest, 
sweetest and choicest " fish of the Lake, and it has been 
caught weighing as high as twelve pounds. 

Another fish, native to Lake Tahoe, is found in vast num- 
bers by the Indians in the fall. The ordinary summer visi- 

266 



FISHING IN THE LAKES 267 

tor to Tahoe seldom sees or hears of these, as they rarely 
bite until the summer season is over, say in October. This 
is a white fish, varying in size from half a pound to four 
pounds in weight, with finely flavored flesh. It is found in 
shallow water and near the mouths of the creeks, and the 
Indians have a way of " snagging " them in. Building a 
kind of half platform and half stone screen over the pools 
where they abound, the Indians take a long wire, the end 
of which they have sharpened and bent to form a rude hook. 
Then, without bait, or any attempt at sport, they lower the 
hook and as rapidly as the fish appear, " snag " them out, lit- 
erally by the hundreds. Most of these are salted down for 
winter use. This is supposed to be a native, and the tradi- 
tions of the Indians confirm the supposition. 

The largest native Tahoe trout caught, of which there is 
any authentic record, was captured not far from Glenbrook 
and weighed 35 pounds, and, strange to say, its capturer was 
an amateur. This, the boatmen tell me, is generally the case 
— the amateurs almost invariably bringing in the largest fish. 
Although there are rumors of fish having been caught weigh- 
ing as high as 45 pounds it is impossible to trace these down 
to any accurate and reliable source, hence, until there is posi- 
tive assurance to the contrary it may be regarded that this 
catch is the largest on record. 

The common Tahoe method of " trolling " for trout is 
different from the eastern method. It is the result of years 
of experience and is practically as follows: A copper line, 
100 to 200 feet long, which sinks of its own weight, on 
which a large copper spoon is placed above the hook, which 
is baited with a minnow and angle-worm, is used. Thrown 
into the water the line is gently pulled forward by the angler, 
then allowed to sink back. He takes care, however, always 
to keep it taut. This makes the spoon revolve and attracts 
the fish. The moment the angler feels a strike he gives his 



268 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

line a quick jerk and proceeds to pull in, landing the fish with 
the net. The local term for this method of fishing is " jerk- 
line." 

The copper line used is generally a 6 oz. for lOO feet, and 
the length is adjusted to the places in which the fisherman 
wishes to operate. 

Let us, for a short time, watch the would-be angler. 
Women are often far more eager than men. The hotels of 
Tahoe keep their own fishing-boats. The larger ones have a 
fleet of twenty or more, and in the season this is found in- 
sufficient for the number who wish to try their hand and 
prove their luck. Often great rivalry exists not only in 
securing the boatmen who have had extra good luck or dis- 
played extraordinary skill, but also between the guests as 
to the extent of their various " catches." When a boatman 
has taken his " fare " into regions that have proven success- 
ful, and does this with frequency, it is natural that those who 
wish to run up a large score should try hard to secure him. 
This adds to the fun — especially to the onlookers. 

The boat is all ready; the angler takes his (or her) seat 
in the cushioned stern, feet resting upon a double carpet — 
this is fishing de luxe. The oarsman pushes off and quietly 
rows away from the pier out into deep water, which, at 
Tahoe varies from 75 feet to the unknown depths of 1500 
feet or more. The color of the water suggests even to the 
tyro the depth, and as soon as the " Tahoe blue " is reached 
the boatman takes his large hand-reel, unfastens the hook, 
baits it with minnow and worm and then hands it to the 
angler, with instructions to allow it to unreel when thrown 
out on the port side at the stern. 

At the same time he prepares a second hook from a second 
reel which he throws out at the starboard side. At the end 
of each copper line a few yards of fish-cord are attached in 
which a loop is adjusted for the fingers. This holds the 



FISHING IN THE LAKES 269 

line secure while the backward and forward pulls are being 
made, and affords a good hold for the hook-impaling " jerk " 
when a strike is felt. While the " angler " pulls on, his line 
the boatman slowly rows along, and holding his line on the 
fingers of his " starboard " hand, he secures the proper mo- 
tion as he rows. 

Then, pulling over the ledges or ridges between shallow 
and deeper, or deeper and deep water, he exercises all his 
skill and acquired knowledge and experience to enable his 
" fare " to make a good catch. As soon as a strike is felt and 
duly hooked he sees that the line is drawn in steadily so as 
not to afford the fish a chance to rid itself of the hook, and, 
as soon as it appears, he drops his oar, seizes the net, and 
lands the catch to the great delight of his less-experienced 
fare. 

Many are the tales that a privileged listener may hear 
around the fisherman's night-haunts, telling of the antics of 
their many and various fares, when a strike has been made. 
Some become so excited that they tangle up their lines, and 
one boatman assures me that, on one occasion a lady was so 
" rattled " that she finally wrapped her line in such a fashion 
around both elbows that she sat helpless and he had to come 
to her rescue and release her. 

On another occasion a pair of " newly-weds " went out 
angling. When " hubby " caught a fish, the pair celebrated 
the catch by enthusiastically kissing, totally regardless of the 
surprise or envy that might be excited in the bosom of the 
poor boatman, and when " wifie " caught a fish the same pro- 
cedure was repeated. " Of course," said the boatman, in 
telling me the story, " that pair caught more fish than any 
one I had had for a month, simply to taunt me with their 
carryings on," 

In the height of the season the guests become the most 
enthusiastic fishermen of all. They take a growing pride in 



270 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

their increasing scores and the fishing then resolves itself into 
an earnest, almost deadly, tournament in which each deter- 
mines to outscore the others. This is what the boatmen en- 
joy — though it often means longer hours and more severe 
rowing — for it is far easier to work (so they say) for a 
■ fare " who is really interested than for one who is half- 
hearted and indifferent. 

As these rivals' boats pass each other they call out in tri- 
umph their rising luck, or listen gloweringly to the recital of 
others' good fortune, when they are compelled to silence be- 
cause of their own failure. 

Sometimes the boatmen find these rivalries rather embarrass- 
ing, for the excitement and nervousness of their " fares " be- 
come communicated to them. Then, perhaps, they lose a 
promising strike, or, in their hurry, fail to land the fish when 
it appears. Scolding and recriminations are not uncommon 
on such occasions, and thus is the gayety of nations added to. 

What is it that really constitutes "fisherman's luck"? 
Who can tell? The theories of Tahoe fishermen are as 
many as there are men. Some think one thing, some another. 
One will talk learnedly of the phases of the moon, another 
of the effect of warmer or colder weather upon the " bugs " 
upon which the fish feed. 

Sometimes one will " jerk " half a day and never get a 
strike; other days the boat will scarcely have left the wharf 
before one pulls the fish in almost as fast as hooks can be 
baited and thrown out. When fishing is slow an amateur 
soon becomes tired out. The monotonous pull on the line 
soon makes the arm weary, and destroys all enthusiasm. But 
let the strikes begin and weariness disappears. Some days 
the fish will bite for an hour, say from eleven to twelve, and 
then quit and not give another strike all day. The very next 
day, in the same spot, one cannot get a bite until afternoon. 

One of my fishermen friends once related the following: 



FISHING IN THE LAKES 271 

" Again and again I have heard old and experienced fisher- 
men say that no fish can be caught in a thunder-storm. Yet 
in July 19 1 3 four boats were towed by a launch out to the 
Nevada side, near to Glenbrook. It appeared stormy be- 
fore the party left, but they refused to be daunted or dis- 
couraged by the doleful prognostications of the " know-it- 
alls." Before long the lightning began, the clouds hung 
heavy, and while they fished they were treated to alternate 
doses of thunder, lightning, cloud, sunshine, rain and hail. 
In less than an hour every member of the party — and there 
were several ladies — were soaked and drenched to the skin, 
but all were happy. For, contrary to the assertions of the ex- 
perts, every angler was having glorious success. Each boat 
secured its full quota, 40 fish to each, and the catch aver- 
aged 70 pounds to a boat, scarcely a fish being pulled out 
that did not weigh over a pound. Talk about luck; these 
people surely had it." 

Once again; I was out one day with Boat No. 14 (each 
boat has its own number), and the boatman told me the fol- 
lowing story. I know him well and his truthfulness is be- 
yond question. He had with him two well-known San 
Francisco gentlemen, whom I will name respectively, Rosen- 
baum and Rosenblatt. They were out for the day. For 
hours they " jerked " without success. At last one turned 
to the other and said: " Rosie, I've got a hunch that our 
luck's going to change. I'm going to count twenty and be- 
fore I'm through we'll each have a fish." Slowly he began 
to count, one, — two, — three. Just as he counted fourteen, 
both men felt a strike, gave the fateful jerk, and pulled in a 
large fish, and from that moment their luck changed. 

This is not the whole of the story, however. Some days 
later the same boatman was out on the Nevada side with two 
gentlemen, who could not get a bite. Merely to while away 
the time the boatman told the foregoing facts. To his sur- 



272 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

prise and somewhat to his disgust at his own indiscretion in 
telling the story, one of the gentlemen began to count, and, 
believe it or not, he assures me that at the fateful fourteen, 
he gained a first-class strike, and continued to have success 
throughout the afternoon. 

As he left the boat he turned to his companion and said: 
" Well, that fourteen's proved a lucky number. I'm going 
right over to the roulette wheel to see what luck it will give 
me over there." 

My boatman friend added that as he heard nothing of 
any great winnings at the wheel that night, and Mr. X. 
looked rather quiet and sober the next day, he is afraid the 
luck did not last. Needless to say that except to me, and 
then only in my capacity as a writer, the story has never been 
told. 

Now, while the jerk-line method brings much joy to the 
heart of the successful and lucky amateur, the genuine dis- 
ciple of Izaak Walton scorns this unsportsman-like method. 
He comes earlier in the season, April, May, or June, or later, 
in September, and brings his rod and line, when the fish 
keep nearer to the shore in the pot-holes and rocky formations, 
and then angles with the fly. It is only at these times, how- 
ever, that he is at all likely to have any success, as the Tahoe 
trout does not generally rise to the fly. 

Yet, strange to say, in all the smaller trout-stocked lakes 
of the region. Fallen Leaf, Cascade, Heather, Lily, Susie, 
Lucile, Grass, LeConte, Rock Bound, the Velmas, Angora, 
Echo, Tamarack, Lake of the Woods, Rainbow, Pit, Gilmore, 
Kalmia, Fontinalis, Eagle, Granite, and as many more, the 
trout are invariably caught with the fly, though the species 
most sought after is not the native Tahoe trout, but the east- 
ern brook. This is essentially fish for the genuine angler, 
and many are the tales — true and otherwise — told of the 
sport the capture of this fish has afforded in the region. 



FISHING IN THE LAKES 273 

There are several interesting peculiarities about the fish 
of Lake Tahoe and its region that it is well to note. In the 
large lake (Tahoe) the native cutthroat grows to much the 
largest size — the 35-lb. one referred to elsewhere being 
proof of its great growth. 

The next in size is the Mackinac which is often caught 
as large as 10 lb., and now and again up to 15 lb. 

In Fallen Leaf Lake, which was stocked with Mackinac 
some years ago, the native trout has become comparatively 
scarce, the former seemingly having driven it out, though in 
Lake Tahoe there is no such result. In Fallen Leaf not 
more than one or two in ten will be cutthroats, while Macki- 
nacs abound, up to 6 lbs. and 7 lbs. in weight. Occasionally 
much larger fish are seen, though they are seldom brought 
to net. Not long ago a Loch Levin, weighing 12 lbs., was 
caught here. 

While the catch of fish in the smaller lakes of the region 
is exceedingly large the fish themselves are smaller, the op- 
portunities for hiding and fattening and growing older being 
comparatively greater in the larger body of water. 

During the height of the season when there are a great 
many boats out it is common to hire a launch which will 
tow from four to a dozen boats over towards Emerald Bay 
on the California side, or towards Glenbrook on the Nevada 
side, where the fishing grounds are known to be of the best. 
The boatmen especially enjoy these days out — although the 
" fares " may not always suspect it — as it gives them a 
change from their ordinary routine and table fare. They en- 
joy trout as well as do the visitors, and of course, they are 
all expert cooks as well as boatmen. When noon-time comes, 
if there has been any luck, a camp-fire is built and the fish 
are fried, or broiled on the coals, or by experts, made into 
an excellent chowder. And never does one enjoy a fish din- 
ner so much as under these circumstances. The exercise, the 



274 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

fresh air, the motion over the water, the deliciousness and 
delicate flavor of the fish, all conspire to tempt the most 
capricious appetite. 

Once in a while a black bass will be caught, though it is 
not believed that this is a native fish. It does not seem to 
thrive in Tahoe though the boatmen tell me they occasion- 
ally see a few, especially off the docks at Tallac and other 
points at the south end of the Lake. 

Now and again small bull-heads will be seen, and a very 
small rock-bass. But these never bite on hook and line, and 
are seldom found more than two or three inches long. 

On the other hand big schools of suckers and chubs are 
seen. The former naturally are scorned by all true fisher- 
men as they are regarded as hogs, or scavengers, and are 
thrown back whenever caught, or are taken and fed to the 
gulls or pelicans. The chubs occasionally are hooked and 
are from half a pound to a pound and a half in size. As a 
rule these are thrown back, though they make good eating 
to those who do not object to their excess of bones. 

One of the most interesting of sights is to see one of the 
schools of minnows that fairly abound in Lake Tahoe. In 
the clear and pellucid water one can clearly see them swim 
along. As they pass a rocky place a trout will dart out and 
catch his prey. A flutter at once passes through the whole 
school. Yet, strange to say, the trout will sometimes swim 
around such a body and either stupify them with fear, or 
hypnotize them into forgetfulness of their presence, for they 
will float quietly in the center of the mass, catching the min- 
nows one by one as they need them without exciting the 
least fear or attention. The minnows generally remain in 
fairly shallow water, and keep so closely together that a line 
of demarcation is made between where they are and outside, 
as if it had been cut with a knife along a straight edge, and 



FISHING IN THE LAKES 275 

in some mysterious way the fish dare not cross it, though it 
constantly moves along with their movements. 

It will be obvious that necessarily there is much market- 
fishing in Lake Tahoe and its surrounding lakes. Indeed 
there are large numbers of fishermen — Indians and whites 
— who supply the various hotels both of the Lake region and 
in San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento and adjacent cities, 
and even as far as Denver and Salt Lake City, eastwards, and 
Los Angeles to the south. These fishermen are very per- 
sistent in their work, keeping at it from early morning until 
late at night, though their catches are supposed to be offi- 
cially regulated. 

The amount of fish caught and shipped by these market- 
fishermen is remarkable. In 191 1 the report shows that over 
22,000 pounds were sent out by express, over half of which 
were sent from Tallac alone. And this does not take any 
account of the amount caught and eaten by private residents 
around the Lake, by the visitors or by the hotels. 

The fish that are to be shipped are not, as one might 
naturally suppose, packed in ice. Experience has demon- 
strated a better way which is now universally followed. At 
Tallac the hotel has a large place devoted to this process, 
which is practically as follows: Each boatman has a fish- 
box, numbered to correspond with his boat. These are kept 
in the water during the season, and if the catch of his "fare" 
for one day is not sufficient for a shipment it is placed in the 
box. When a sufficient number is on hand, they are taken 
out by the boatman, carefully cleaned and hung up to dry 
in fly-proof, open-air cages. When perfectly dry inside and 
out they are packed in sweet-smelling Tallac Meadow hay, 
and shipped by express. 

Many visitors cannot understand why there are no fish 
in some of the lakes that, to their eyes, seem just as well 



276 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

adapted for fish as others that possess an abundance. Even 
old timers do not all know the reason. If a lake is shal- 
low, when the deep snow falls it soon sinks below the sur- 
face in a heavy mushy mass that presses down upon the fish 
and prevents their breathing. Then, if a severe frost fol- 
lows and the mass freezes the ice squeezes the fish to the 
bottom. Over three years ago Watson took fish to Bessie 
Lake, putting in as many as 6000 fry of Lake Tahoe and 
other species. The next year, and the following years they 
were all right, having grown to eight or nine inches in 
length. Then came a severe winter and in the spring there 
was not a living fish left. The bottom was strewn with 
them, many of them with broken backs. 




MOUNTAIN HEATHER, IN DESOLATION VALLEY, NEAR LAKI 
TAIIOE 



CHAPTER XXIX 

HUNTING AT LAKE TAHOE 

IN the chapter on the Birds and Animals of the Tahoe 
Region I have written of the game to be found. There 
are few places left in the Sierras where such good deer- 
and bear-hunting can be found as near Tahoe During the 
dense snow-falls the deer descend the western slopes, ap- 
proaching nearer and nearer to the settlements of the upper 
foothills, and there they do fairly well until the snow be- 
gins to recede in the spring. They keep as near to the snow 
line as possible, and are then as tame and gentle almost as 
sheep. When the season opens, however, they soon flee to 
certain secret recesses and hidden lairs known to none but 
the old and experienced guides of the region. There are 
so many of these wooded retreats, however, and the Tahoe 
area is so vast, that it is seldom an expert goes out for deer 
(or bear) that he fails. Hence the sportsman is always as- 
sured of " something worth while." 

As for bear I have told elsewhere of recent hunts on Mt. 
Freel from Tallac, and the two bears killed there in 19 13, 
and of Carl Flugge's experiences. With Tallac hunters, 
Flugge, Bob Watson or any other experienced man, one can 
scarcely fail to have exciting and successful times. 



VI 



CHAPTER XXX 

THE FLOWERS OF THE TAHOE REGION 

IT would be impossible in the space of a brief chapter 
to present even a list of all the flowers found and re- 
corded in the Tahoe Region. Suffice it to say that 
1300 different species already have been listed. This chap- 
ter will merely call attention to the most prominent, or, on 
the other hand, the rarer and special flowering plants that 
the visitor should eagerly search for. 

As fast as the snovr retires from the sun-kissed slopes the 
flowers begin to come out. Indeed in April, were one at 
Tahoe, he could make a daily pilgrimage to the receding 
snow-line and there enjoy new revelations of dainty beauty 
each morning. For the flovi^ers, as the snow-coating be- 
comes thinner, respond to the " call of the sun," and thrust 
up their spears out of the softened and moistened earth, so 
that when the last touch of snow is gone they are often al- 
ready in bud ready to burst forth into flower at the first kiss 
of sunshine. 

In May they come trooping along in all their pristine 
glory, God's thoughts cast upon the mold of earth, so that 
even the men and women of downcast eyes and souls may 
know the ever-fresh, ever-present love of God. 

Most interesting of all is the snow-plant (sarcodes san- 
guinea Torrey). The name is unfortunate. The plant 
doesn't look like snow, nor does it grow on or in the snow. 
It simply follows the snow line, as so many of the Sierran 
plants do, and as the snow melts and leaves the valley, one 

278 



FLOWERS OF THE TAHOE REGION 279 

must climb to find it. It is of a rich red color, which glows 
in the sunlight like a living thing. It has no leaves but is 
supplied with over-lapping scale-like bracts of a warm flesh- 
tint. At the lower part of the flower these are rigid and 
closely adherent to the stem, but higher up they become 
looser and curl gracefully about among the vivid red bells. 
In the spring of 1914 they were wonderfully plentiful at 
the Tavern and all around the Lake. I literally saw hun- 
dreds of them. 

Next in interest comes the heather, both red and white. 
In Desolation Valley, as well as around most of the Sierran 
lakes of the Tahoe Region, beds of heather are found that 
have won enthusiastic Scotchmen to declare that Tahoe 
heather beats that of Scotland. The red heather is the more 
abundant, and its rich deep green leaves and crown of glow- 
ing red makes it to be desired, but the white heather is a 
flower fit for the delicate corsage bouquet of a queen, or the 
lapel of the noblest of men. Dainty and exquisite, perfect 
in shape and color its tiny white bell is par-excellence the 
emblem of passionate purity. 

Blue gentians {Gentina calycosa, Griseb) abound, their 
deep blue blossoms rivaling the pure blue of our Sierran 
skies. These often come late in the season and cheer the 
hearts of those who come upon them with " a glad sweet 
surprise." There are also white gentians found aplenty. 

The water lilies of the Tahoe Region are strikingly beau- 
tiful. In many of the Sierran lakes conditions seem to ex- 
ist which make them flourish and they are found in plentiful 
quantities. 

Wild mangolds abound in large patches, even on the 
mountain heights, where there is plenty of moisture and sun- 
shine, and a species of marguerite, or mountain daisy, is not 
uncommon. The Indian paint-brush is found everywhere 
and is in full bloom in deepest red in September. 



28o THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE T AH OE 

Wild sunflowers also abound except where the sheep have 
been. Then not a sign of once vast patches can be found. 
They are eaten clear to the ground. 

The mullein attains especial dignity in this mountain re- 
gion. Stately and proud it rises above the lesser though 
more beautiful flowers of the wild. It generally dies down 
in September, though an occasional flowering stalk may be 
seen as late as October. 

Another very common but ever-welcome plant, for its 
pungent and pleasing odor, is the pennyroyal. It abounds 
throughout the whole region and its hardiness keeps it flow- 
ering until late in the fall. 

Beautiful and delicate at all times wherever seen, the wild 
snowdrop is especially welcome in the Tahoe Region, where, 
amid soaring pines and firs, it timidly though faithfully 
blooms and cheers the eye with its rare purity. 

Now and again one will find the beautiful California 
fuschia (zauschneria Calif ornica, Presl.) its delicate beauty 
delighting the eye and suggesting some of the rare orchids 
of a pale yellow tint. 

The Sierra primrose {Primula Suffrutescens) is often 
found near to the snow-line. Its tufts of evergreen leaves 
seem to revel in the cold water of the melting snow and the 
exquisite rose-tints of the flowers are enhanced by the pure 
white of what snow is left to help bring them into being. 

It is natural that, in a region so abounding in water, ferns 
of many kinds should also abound. The common brake 
flourishes on the eastern slopes, but I have never found the 
maiden hair. On the western slopes it is abundant, but 
rarely if ever found on the easterly exposures. 

Most striking and attractive among the shrubs are the 
mountain ash, the mountain mahogany (cereocarpus parvi- 
folius, Nutt.) the California laurel (umbellularia Calif ar- 
nica, Nutt.) and the California holly, or toy on. The rich 



FLOWERS OF THE TAHOE REGION 281 

berries, the green leaves, the exquisite and dainty flowers, 
the delicious and stimulating odors all combine to make these 
most welcome in every Sierran landscape, no matter at what 
season they appear. 

While in the foregoing notes on the flowers of the Tahoe 
region I have hastily gone over the ground, one particular 
mountain to the north of Tahoe has been so thoroughly and 
scientifically studied that it seems appropriate to call more 
particular attention to it in order that botanists may realize 
how rich the region is in rare treasures. For what follows 
I am indebted to the various writings of Professor P. Bev- 
eridge Kennedy, long time professor at the University of Ne- 
vada, but recently elected to the faculty of the University of 
California. 

One could almost write a " Botany " of Mt. Rose alone, 
so interesting are the floral specimens found there. This 
mountain stands unique in the Lake Tahoe region in that it 
is an intermediate between the high mountains of the 
Sierra Nevada and those of the interior of the Great Basin. 
Its flora are undoubtedly influenced by the dry atmospheric 
conditions that exist on the eastern side. A mere sugges- 
tion only can be given here of the full enjoyment afforded 
by a careful study of what it offers. 

At from 10,000 feet up the following new species have 
been found. Eriogonum rhodanthum, a perennial which 
forms dense mats on hard rocky ground. The caudex is 
made up of many strands twisted together like rope, its 
numerous branches terminated by clusters of very small, new 
and old leaves, with flower clusters. Another similar spe- 
cies is the E. rosensis. 

An interesting rock-cress is found in the Arabis Depau- 
perata, which here shows the results of its fierce struggles 
for existence. It bears minute purple flowers. 

Flowering in the middle of August, but past flowering at 



282 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

the end of September the Gilia montana is found, with its 
numerous white and pink leaves. 

Nearbj' is the Phlox dejecta in large quantities, resembling 
a desert moss, and covering the rocks with its tinted carpet. 

An Indian paint-brush with a flower in an oblong cream- 
colored spike, with purple blotches, was named Castilleia 
inconspicua, possibly because it is so much less conspicuous 
and alluring to the eye than its well-known and striking 
brother of the California fields, C. parviflora. This species 
has been of great interest to botanists, as when first observed 
it was placed in the genus Orthocarpus, Professor Kennedy- 
thinks it is undoubtedly a connecting link between the two 
genera. It has been found only on Mount Rose, where it is 
common at between 9000 and 10,000 feet elevation. It 
readies, however, to the summit, though it is more sparingly 
found there. 

Professor Kennedy also describes Hulsca Caespitosa, or 
Alpine dandelion, a densely pubescent plant, emitting a disa- 
greeable odor, whose large yellow flowers surprise one when 
seen glowing apparently out of the masses of loose volcanic 
rock. It is soon found, however, that they have roots deep 
down in good soil beneath. Another new species, Chryso- 
thamnus Monocephalaj or Alpine rabbit-brush, is a very low, 
shrubby plant, with insignificant pale yellow flowers. 

A beautiful little plant, well adapted to rockeries and 
suited for cultivation, is Polcmonium Moiitrosense. Under 
good conditions it grows excellently. It was found on the 
summit of IVIt. Rose, and at lower elevations. 

Clusters of the Alpine Monkey-flower {Mimulus Irn- 
plexiis, Greene), are also found on Mt. Rose, as well as on 
other Tahoe mountain summits. The rich yellow flowers 
bloom profusely, though their bed is often a moraine of wet 
rocks over which a turbulent cold stream has recently sub- 
sided. 



FLOWERS OF THE TAHOE REGION 283 

Slightly below the summit the little elephant's-head have 
been found {Elephantella attolens (Gray) Heller). Ryd- 
berg in his Flora of Montana showed that these were not 
properly the true pendicularis, as they had hitherto been re- 
garded, hence the new name. The corolla strikingly re- 
sembles the head of an elephant, the beak of the galea form- 
ing the trunk, the lateral lobes of the lips the ears, and the 
stigma the finger-like appendage of the trunk. 

In August, growing below the perpetual snow banks at 
about 10,000 feet elevation that supply an abundance of 
moisture, one will often find clumps of Rhodiola Integrifolia, 
which attract the eye with their deep reddish-purple flowers 
and fruits. The leaves also have a purple tinge. 

Nearby clambering over the granite bowlders the Alpine 
heath, Cassiope Mertensianae, with its multitude of rose- 
tinted flower bells, sometimes is found, though not in the pro- 
fusion it displays in Desolation Valley. 

Another very interesting plant is the Alpine currant 
(Ribes Inebrians, Lindl.) which between the years 1832 and 
1907 has received no less than eight different names accorded 
by European and American botanists. It is a remarkable 
shrub, in that it occurs higher on the mountain than any 
other form of vegetation except lichens. The roots pene- 
trate deeply into the crevices of the lava rocks, enabling it 
to withstand the fierce winds. The flowers, which appear in 
August, are white, shading to pink, and the red berries, which 
are not especially palatable on account of their insipid taste 
and numerous seeds, are abundant in September. Another 
new Mt. Rose ribes has been named Churchii in honor of 
Professor J. E. Church, Jr., whose original work at the Mt. 
Rose Observatory is described in the chapter devoted to that 
purpose. 

Growing at elevations of from 6000 to 10,000 feet, dis- 
playing a profusion of white flowers sometimes delicately 



284 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

tinged with light purple is the Phlox Douglasii, Hook. It is 
low but with loose, much-branched prostrate stems and re- 
markably stout, almost woody roots. 

A new Alpine willow {Salix Caespitosa) has also been dis- 
covered. Professor Kennedy thus writes of it: 

The melting snow, as it comes through and over the 
rocks in the nature of a spring, brings with it particles of 
sand and vegetation, which form a very shallow layer of 
soil on a flat area to one side of the main branch of the 
stream. On this the willow branches adhere like ivy, 
rooting at every joint and interlaced so as to form a dense 
mat. From these, erect leafy shoots, one or two inches 
high, appear, with the many flowered catkins extending 
above the foliage. The pistillate plants occupy separate 
but adjacent areas to the staminate ones. 




TALLAC, LAKE TAHOE 




LOOKING NORTH FROM CAVE ROCK, LAKE TAHOE 



CHAPTER XXXI 

THE CHAPARRAL OF THE TAHOE REGION 

THE word chaparral is a Spanish word, transferred 
bodily into our language, without, however, retain- 
ing its strict and original significance. In Spanish 
it means a plantation of evergreen oaks, or, thick bramble- 
bushes entangled with thorny shrubs in clumps. Hence, in 
the west, it has come to mean, any low or scrub brush that 
thickly covers a hill or mountain-side. As there is a varied 
chaparral in the Tahoe region, it is well for the visitor to 
know of what it is mainly composed. 

Experience has demonstrated that where the larger lum- 
ber is cut off close on the Sierran slopes of the Tahoe region 
the low bushy chaparral at once takes full possession. It 
seems to prevent the tree seeds from growing and thus is 
an effectual preventive to reforestation. This, however, 
is generally not so apparent east of the main range as it is on 
the western slopes. One of its chief elements is the man- 
zanita {Arctostaphylos patula) easily distinguishable by the 
red wood of its stem and larger branches, glossy leaves, 
waxen blossoms (when in flower) and green or red berries 
in the early autumn. 

The snow-bush abounds. It is a low sage-green bush, very 
thorny, hence is locally called " bide-a-wee " from the name 
given by the English soldiers to a very thorny bush they had 
to encounter during the Boer War. In the late days of 
spring and even as late as July it is covered with a white 
blossom that makes it glorious and attractive. 

285 



286 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Then there is the thimble-berry with its big, light yellow, 
sprawling leaves, and its attractively red, thimble-shaped, but 
rather tasteless berries. The Indians, however, are very 
fond of them, and so are some of the birds and animals, like- 
wise of the service berries, which look much like the blue- 
berry, though their flavor is not so choice. 

Here and there patches of the wild gooseberry add to the 
tangle of the chaparral. The gooseberries when ripe are 
very red, as are the currants, but they are armored with a 
tough skin completely covered with sharp, hairy thorns. In 
Southern California all the fruit of the wild ribes have the 
thorns, but they do not compare in penetrating power and 
strength with those of the Tahoe gooseberries. 

One of the most charming features of the chaparral is 
the mountain ash, especially when the berries are ripe and 
red. The Scotch name roivan seems peculiarly appropriate. 
Even while the berries are yellow they are attractive to the 
eye, and alluring to the birds, but when they become red they 
give a splendid dash of rich color that sets off the whole 
mountain side. 

The mountain mahogany is not uncommon {Cereocarpus 
parvifolius, Nutt.) and though its green flowers are incon- 
spicuous, its long, solitary plumes at fruiting time attract the 
eye. 

While the California laurel {Umbdhdarla CoUfornica, 
Nutt.) often grows to great height, it is found in chapar- 
ral clumps on the mountain sides. It is commonly known 
as the bay tree, on account of the bay-like shape and odor of 
its leaves when crushed. It gives a spicy fragrance to the 
air and is always welcome to those who know it. 

In many places throughout the mountains of the Tahoe 
region there are clumps or groves of wild cherry {Prunus 
Demhsa, Walpers), the cherries generally ripening in Sep- 
tember. But if one expects the ripe red wild cherries to have 



CHAPARRAL OF THE TAHOE REGION 287 

any of the delicious richness and sweetness of the ripe Queen 
Anne or other good variety he is doomed to sad disappoint- 
ment. For they are sour and bitter — bitter as quinine, — 
and that is perhaps the reason their juice has been extracted 
and made into medicine supposed to have extraordinary tonic 
and heah'ng virtue. 

The elder is often found {Sambucus Glaiica, Nutt.), some- 
times quite tall and at other times broken down by the snow, 
but bravely covering its bent and gnarled trunks and branches 
with dense foliage and cream-white blossom-clusters. The 
berries are always attractive to the eye in their purple tint, 
with the creamy blush on them, and happy is that traveler 
who has an expert make for him an elderberry pie, or dis- 
till the rich cordial the berries make. 

Another feature of the chaparral often occupies the field 
entirely to itself, viz., the chamisal or greasewood {Adenos- 
toma fasciculatum. Hook, and Am.). Its small clustered 
and needle-like leaves, richly covered with large, feathery 
panicles of tiny blossoms, give it an appearance not unlike 
Scotch heather, and make a mountainside dainty and beauti- 
ful. 

The California buckeye {Aesculus Californica, Nutt.) is 
also found, especially upon stream banks or on the moist 
slopes of the canyons. Its light gray limbs, broad leaves, and 
long, white flower-spikes make it an attractive shrub or tree 
(for it often reaches forty feet in height), and when the 
leaves drop, as they do early, the skeleton presents a beau- 
tiful and delicate network against the deep azure of the sky. 

Another feature of the chaparral is the scrub oak. In 1913 
the bushes were almost free from acorns. They generally 
appear only every other year, and when they do bear the 
crop is a wonderfully numerous one. 

A vast amount of wild lilac {Ceanothus Velutinus) is 
found on all the slopes. It generally blooms in June and 



288 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

then the hillsides are one fragrant and glowing mass of vivid 
white tinged with the creamy hue that adds so much charm 
to the flowers. 

The year 191 3, however, was a peculiar year, throughout, 
for plant life. In the middle of September in Page's 
Meadows a large patch of ceanothus was in full bloom, either 
revealing a remarkably late flowering, or a second effort at 
beautification. 

Another ceanothus, commonly called mountain birch, is 
often found. When in abundance and in full flower it 
makes a mountain side appear as if covered with drifted 
snow. 

Willows abound in the canyons and on the mountains of 
the Tahoe region, and they are an invariable sign of the 
near presence of water. 

There is scarcely a canyon where alders, cottonwoods and 
quaking aspens may not be found. In 19 13 either the lack 
of water, some adverse climatic condition, or some fungus 
blight caused the aspen leaves to blotch and fall from the 
trees as early as the beginning of September. As a rule they 
remain until late in October, changing to autumnal tints of 
every richness and hue and reminding one of the glorious 
hues of the eastern maples when touched by the first frdsts 
of winter. 

To one used to exploring dry and desert regions, such as 
the Colorado and Mohave Deserts of Southern California, 
the Grand Canyon region, the Navajo Reservation, etc., in 
Arizona and New Mexico, the constant presence of water in 
the Tahoe region is a perpetual delight. Daily in my trips 
here I have wondered at the absence of my canteen and 
sometimes in moments of forgetfulness I would reach for 
it, and be almost paralyzed with horror not to find it in its 
accustomed place. But the never-ending joy of feeling that 
one could start out for a day's trip, or a camping-out expedi- 



CHAPARRAL OF THE TAHOE REGION 289 

tion of a week or a month and never give the subject of 
water a moment's thought, can only be appreciated by those 
who are direfully familiar with the dependence placed upon 
the canteen in less favored regions. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

HOW TO DISTINGUISH THE TREES OF THE TAHOE REGION 

BY " trees " in this chapter I mean only the evergreen 
trees — the pines, firs, spruces, hemlocks, cedars, 
junipers and tamaracks. Many visitors like to know 
at least enough when they are looking at a tree, to tell which 
of the above species it belongs to. All I aim to do here is 
to seek to make clear the distinguishing features of the vari- 
ous trees, and to give some of the more readily discernible 
signs of the different varieties of the same species found in 
the region. 

It must not be forgotten that tree growth is largely de- 
pendent upon soil conditions. The soil of the Tahoe region 
is chiefly glacial detritus. 

On the slopes and summits of the ridges it is sandy, 
gravelly, and liberally strewn with masses of drift bowlders. 
The flats largely formed of silting while they still consti- 
tuted beds of lakes, have a deep soil of fine sand and mold 
resting on coarse gravel and bowlder drift. Ridges com- 
posed of brecciated lavas, which crumble easily under the 
influence of atmospheric agencies, are covered with soil two 
or three feet, or even more, in depth, where gentle slopes 
or broad saddles have favored deposition and prevented 
washing. The granite areas of the main range and else- 
where have a very thin soil. The flats at the entrance of 
small streams into Lake Tahoe are covered with deep soil, 
owing to deposition of vegetable matter brought from the 
slopes adjacent to their channels. As a whole, the soil of 
the region is of sufficient fertility to support a heavy forest 
growth, its depth depends wholly on local circumstances 

290 



HOW TO DISTINGUISH THE TREES 291 

favoring washing and removal of the soil elements as fast 
as formed, or holding them in place and compelling accu- 
mulations/ 

Coniferous species of trees constitute fully ninety-five per 
cent, of the arborescent growth in the region. The remain- 
ing five per cent, consists mostly of different species of oak, 
ash, maple, mountain-mahogany, aspen, cottonwood, Cali- 
fornia buckeye, western red-bud, arborescent willows, alders, 
etc. 

Of the conifers the species are as follows: yellow pine, 
pinus ponderosa; Jeffrey pine, pinus jeffreyi; sugar pine, pinus 
lambertiana ; lodge-pole pine, pinus murrayana; white pine, 
pinus monticola; digger pine, pinus sabiniana; white-bark 
pine, pinus albicaulis; red fir, pseudotsuga taxifolia; white fir, 
abies concolor; Shasta fir, abies magnifica; patton hemlock 
or alpine spruce, tsuga pattoniana; incense cedar, libocedrus 
decurrens; western juniper, juniperus occidentalis ; yew, taxus 
brevifolia. 

The range and chief characteristic of these trees, generally 
speaking, are as follows: 

Digger Pine. This is seldom found in the Tahoe region, 
except in the lower reaches of the canyons on the west side 
of the range. It is sometimes known as the Nut Pine, for 
it bears a nut of which the natives are very fond. It has 
two cone forms, one in which the spurs point straight down, 
the other in which they are more or less curved at the tip. 
They grow to a height of forty to fifty and occasionally ninety 
feet high; with open crown and thin gray foliage. 

Western Juniper. This is a typical tree of the arid re- 
gions east of the Sierra, yet it is to be found scattered 
throughout the Tahoe country, generally at an elevation be- 
tween five thousand and eight thousand feet. It ranges in 

1 John B. Leiberg, in Forest Conditions in the Northern Sierra 
Ne'vada. 



292 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

height from ten to twenty-five or even sixty-five feet. 
Its dull red bark, w^hich shreds or flakes easily, its berries, 
which begin a green color, shade through to gray, and when 
ripe are a rich purple, make it readily discernible. It is a 
characteristic feature of the scenery at timber line in many 
Tahoe landscapes. 

With the crowns beaten by storms into irregular shapes, 
often dead on one side but flourishing on the other, the tops 
usually dismantled and the trunks excessively thickened at 
base, such figures, whether erect, half overthrown or wholly 
crouching, are the most picturesque of mountain trees and 
are frequently of very great age. — Jepson. 

Yew. This is not often found and then only in the west 
canyons above the main range. It is a small and insignifi- 
cant tree, rarely exceeding forty feet in height. It has a 
thin red-brown smooth bark which becomes shreddy as it 
flakes off in thin and rather small pieces. The seeds are 
borne on the under side of the sprays and when mature set 
in a fleshy scarlet cup, the whole looking like a brilliantly 
colored berry five or six inches long. They ripen in July 
or August. 

Incense Cedar. This is commonly found all over the re- 
gion at elevations below 7500 feet, though its chief habitat 
is at elevations of 3500 to 6000 feet. It grows to a height 
of fifty to one hundred and fifty feet, with a strongly conical 
trunk, very thick at the base, and gradually diminishing in 
size upward. The bark is thick, red-brown, loose and fibrous, 
and when the tree is old, broken into prominent heavy longi- 
tudinal furrows. The cones are red-brown, oblong-ovate 
when closed, three-fourths to an inch long. 

Shasta Fir. This is found on the summits, slopes and 
shores of Lake Tahoe, and to levels 6200 feet in elevation 
on the slopes and summits directly connected with the main 
range. It is found along the Mount Pluto ridge. It is 



HOW TO DISTINGUISH THE TREES 293 

essentially a tree of the mountains, where the annual pre- 
cipitation ranges from fifty inches upward. In the Tahoe 
region it is locally known as the red fir. Sometimes it is 
called the red bark fir and golden fir. It grows from sixty 
to even one hundred and seventy-five feet high with trunk 
one to five feet in diameter and a narrowly cone-shaped 
crown composed of numerous horizontal strata of fan-shaped 
sprays. The bark on young trees is whitish or silvery, on 
old trunks dark red, very deeply and roughly fissured. The 
cones when young are of a beautiful dull purple, when ma- 
ture becoming brown. 

White Pine. This is found on northern slopes as low 
down as 6500 feet, though it generally ranges above 7000 
feet, and is quite common. It sometimes is called the sil- 
ver pine, and generally in the Tahoe region, the mountain 
pine. It grows to a height of from fifty to one hundred 
and seventy-five feet, the branches slender and spreading or 
somewhat drooping, and mostly confined to the upper por- 
tion of the shaft. The trunk is from one to six feet in di- 
ameter and clothed with a very smooth though slightly 
checked whitish or reddish bark. The needles are five (rarely 
four) in a place, very slender, one to three and three-fourths 
inches long, sheathed at the base by thinnish narrow de- 
ciduous scales, some of which are one inch long. The cones 
come in clusters of one to seven, from six to eight or rarely 
ten inches long, very slender when closed and usually curved 
towards the tip, black-purple or green when young, buff- 
brown when ripe. It is best recognized by its light-gray 
smooth bark, broken into squarish plates, its pale-blue-grecn 
foliage composed of short needles, and its pendulous cones 
so slender as to give rise to the name " Finger-Cone Pine." 

Sugar Pine. This is found on the lower terraces of Ta- 
hoe, fringing the region with a sparse and scattering growth, 
but it is not found on the higher slopes of the Sierra. On 



294 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

the western side its range is nearly identical with that of 
the red fir. It grows from eighty to one hundred and fifty 
feet high, the young and adult trees symmetrical, but the 
aged trees commonly with broken summits or characteristi- 
cally flat-topped with one or two long arm-like branches ex- 
ceeding shorter ones. The trunk is from two to eight feet 
in diameter, and the bark brown or reddish, closely fissured 
into rough ridges. The needles are slender, five in a bundle, 
two to three and a half inches long. The cones are pendu- 
lous, borne on stalks at the end of the branches, mostly in the 
very summit of the tree, very long-oblong, thirteen to 
eighteen inches long, four to six inches in diameter when 
opened. 

This pine gains its name from its sugary exudation, 
sought by the native tribes, which forms hard white crys- 
tallized nodules on the upper side of fire or ax wounds in the 
wood. This flow contains resin, is manna-like, has ca- 
thartic properties, and is as sweet as cane-sugar. The seeds 
are edible. Although very small they are more valued by 
the native tribes than the large seeds of the Digger Pine 
on account of their better flavor. In former days, when it 
came October, the Indians went to the high mountains 
about their valleys to gather the cones. They camped 
on the ridges where the sugar pines grow and celebrated 
their sylvan journey by tree-climbing contests among the 
men. In these latter days, being possessed of the white 
man's ax, they find it more convenient to cut the tree down. 
It is undoubtedly the most remarkable of all pines, viewed 
either from the standpoint of its economic value or sylvan 
interest. It is the largest of pine trees, considered whether 
as to weight or girth, and more than any other tree gives 
beauty and distinction to the Sierran forest, — Jepson. 

The long cones found in abundance about Tahoe Tavern 
are those of the sugar pine. 

Yellow Pine and Jeffrey Pine. These are practically one 



HOW TO DISTINGUISH THE TREES 295 

and the same, though the latter is generally regarded as a 
variety and the former the type. Mr. Leiberg says: 

The two forms differ chiefly in the size of the cones, in 
the tint and odor of the foliage, and in the color and thick- 
ness of the bark, differences which are insufficient to con- 
stitute specific characters. The most conspicuous of the 
above differences is that in the size of the cones, which may 
seemingly hold good if only a few hundred trees are ex- 
amined. But when one comes to deal with thousands of 
individuals the distinction vanishes. It is common to find 
trees of the Jeffrey type as to foliage and bark that bear 
the big cones, and the characteristic smaller cones of the 
typical yellow pine, both at the same time and on the same 
individual, while old cones strewn about on the ground in- 
dicate that in some seasons trees of the Jeffrey type produce 
only small-sized cones. The odor and the color of leaves 
and bark are more or less dependent on soil conditions and 
the inherent vitality of the individual tree, and the same 
characters are found in specimens belonging to the yellow 
and Jeffrey pine. It is noticeable that the big-cone variety 
preferably grows at considerable elevation and on rocky 
sterile ground, while the typical form of the yellow pine 
prevails throughout the lower regions and on tracts with a 
more generous soil. 

The yellow pine has a wider range than any other of the 
Tahoe conifers, though on the high, rocky areas, south and 
west of Rubicon Springs it is lacking. It crosses from the 
western slopes to the eastern sides of the Sierras and down 
into the Tahoe basin over the heads of Miller and McKin- 
ney Creeks, in both places as a thin line, or rather as scat- 
tering trees mixed with Shasta fir and white pine. 

It grows from sixty to two hundred and twenty-five feet 
high with trunk two to nine feet in diameter. The limbs in 
mature trees are horizontal or even drooping. The bark of 
typical trees is tawny yellow or yellow-brown, divided by fis- 
sures into large smoothish or scaly-surfaced plates which are 
often one to four feet long and one-half to one and a quarter 



296 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

feet wide. The needles are in threes, five to ten inches long ; 
the cones reddish brown. 

It must be noted, too, that " the bark is exceedingly vari- 
able, black-barked or brown-barked trees, roughly or nar- 
rowly fissured, are very common and in their extreme forms 
very different in trunk appearance from the typical or most- 
abundant ' turtle-back ' form with broad, yellow or light 
brown plates." — Jepson. 

Lodge Pole Pine. The range of this tree is almost identi- 
cal with that of the Shasta fir, though here and there it is 
found at as low an altitude as 4500 feet. It loves the mar- 
gins of creeks, glades and lakes situated at altitudes of 6000 
feet and upward, where it usually forms a fringe of nearly 
pure growth in the wet and swampy portions of the ground. 
In the Tahoe region it is invariably called a tamarack or tama- 
rack pine. It is a symmetrical tree commonly reaching as 
high as fifty to eighty feet, but occasionally one hundred and 
twenty-five feet. When stunted, however, it is only a few 
feet. The bark is remarkably thin, rarely more than one 
quarter inch thick, light gray in color, very smooth but flak- 
ing into small thin scales. There are only two needles to a 
bunch, in a sheath, one and a half to two and three quarters 
inches long. The cones are chestnut brown, one to one and 
three quarters inches long. 

It is when sleeping under the lodge pole pines that you be- 
gin to appreciate their perfect charm and beauty. You un- 
roll your blankets at the foot of a stately tree at night, un- 
conscious and careless as to what tree it is. During the 
night, when the moon is at the full, you awaken and look 
up into a glory of shimmering light. The fine tapering 
shape, the delicate fairy-like beauty, instantly appeal to the 
sensitive soul and he feels he is in a veritable temple of 
beauty. 

They are very sensitive trees. In many places a mere 



HOW TO DISTINGUISH THE TREES 297 

grass fire, quick and very fierce for a short time, has destroyed 
quite a number. 

White Fir. This follows closely the range of the Incense 
cedar, though in some places it is found as high as 8700 feet. 
It is one of the most perfect trees in the Sierras. Ranging 
from sixty to one hundred and fifty and even two hundred 
feet high, with a narrow crown composed of flat sprays and a 
trunk naked for one-third to one-half its height and from 
one to six feet in diameter, with a smooth bark, silvery or 
whitish in young trees, becoming thick and heavily fissured 
into rounded ridges on old trunks, and gray or drab-brown 
in color, it is readily distinguishable, with its companion, the 
red fir, by the regularity of construction of trunk, branch 
and branchlet. As Smeaton Chase expresses it, " The fine 
smooth arms, set in regular formation, divide and redivide 
again and again ad infinitum, weaving at last into a maze of 
exquisitely symmetrical twigs and branchlets." 

Red Fir. The range of the red fir is irregular. It occurs 
on the Rubicon River and some of the headwaters of the 
west-flowing streams, reaching a general height of 6000 feet, 
though it is occasionally found as high as 7000 feet. In 
some parts of California this is known as Douglas Spruce, 
and Jepson, in his Silva of California definitely states: 

The name " fir " as applied to the species is so well estab- 
lished among woodsmen that for the sake of intelligibility 
the combination Douglas Fir, which prevents confusion 
with the true firs and has been adopted by the Pacific Coast 
Lumberman's Association, is here accepted, notwithstand- 
ing that the name used by botanists, " Douglas Spruce " is 
actually more fitting on account of the greater number of 
spruce-like characteristics. It is neither true spruce, fir, 
nor hemlock, but a marked type of a distinct genus, namely, 
pseudotsuga. 

It must not be confounded with the red silver fir {Abies 
Magnifica) so eloquently described as the chief delight of the 



298 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Yosemite region by Smeaton Chase. It grows from seventy 
to two hundred and fifty or possibly three hundred and fifty 
feet high, and is the most important lumber tree of the coun- 
try, considering the quality of its timber, the size and length 
of its logs, and the great amount of heavy wood and freedom 
from knots, shakes or defects. On young trees the bark is 
smooth, gray or mottled, sometimes alder-like; on old trunks 
one to six and a half inches thick, soft or putty-like, dark 
brown, fissured into broad heavy furrows. The young rapid 
growth in the open woods produces '* red fir," the older 
slower growth in denser woods is " yellow fir." Every tree 
to a greater or lesser extent exhibits successively these two 
phases, which are dependent upon situation and exposure. 

The chief difference between the white and red fir is in the 
spiculae or leaves. Those of the red fir are shorter, stubbier 
and stiffer than those of the white. The bark, however, is 
pretty nearly alike in young trees and shows a marked dif- 
ference when they get to be forty to fifty years old. 

The Alpine Spruce {Hesperopeuce Pattoniana Lemmon) is 
found only in the highest elevations. Common in Alaska it 
is limited in the Tahoe region to the upper points of forests 
that creep up along glacier beds and volcanic ravines, close 
to perpetual ice. It disappears at io,ooo feet altitude on 
Mt. Whitney and is found nowhere south of this point. On 
Tallac, Mt. Rose and all the higher peaks of the Tahoe re- 
gion it is common, giving constant delight with its slender 
shaft, eighty to a hundred feet high, and with a diameter at 
its base of from six to twelve feet. It is only in the lower 
portions of the belt where it occurs. Higher it is reduced 
to low conical masses of foliage or prostrate creeping shrubs. 

By many it is regarded as a hemlock, but it is not strictly 
so. It was first discovered in 1852 by John Jeffrey, who fol- 
lowed David Douglas in his explorations of the forests of the 
American Northwest. 



HOW TO DISTINGUISH THE TREES 299 

In favorable situations, the lower limbs are retained and 
become long, out-reaching, and spreading over the moun- 
tain slope for many feet; the upper limbs are irregularly 
disposed, not whorled ; they strike downward from the start 
(so that it is almost impossible to climb one of the trees for 
want of foothold), then curving outward to the outline of 
the tree, they are terminated by short, hairy branchlets that 
decline gracefully, and are decorated with pendant cones 
which are glaucous purple until maturity, then leather 
brown, with reflexed scales. 

The main stem sends out strong ascending shoots, the 
leading one terminating so slenderly as to bend from side 
to side with its many purple pendants before the wind, and 
shimmering in the sunlight with rare beauty. — Lemmon. 

On the slopes of Mt. Rose near timber line, which ranges 
from 97CXD to 10,000 feet according to exposures, while still 
a tree of considerable size, it loses its symmetrical appearance. 
Professor Kennedy says: 

Buffeted by the fierce winter winds and snows, the 
branches on the west side of the tree are either entirely 
wanting or very short and gnarled, and the bark is com- 
monly denuded. Unlike its associate, Pinus Albicaulis, 
which is abundant as a prostrate shrub far above timber 
line, the spruce is rarely encountered above timber line at 
this place, but here and there a hardy individual may be 
found lurking among the pines. The greatest elevation at 
which it was noticed is 10,500 feet. 

To me this is one of the most beautiful of Sierran trees. 
Its delicate silvery hue, and the rarely exquisite shading from 
the old growth to the new, its gracefulness, the quaint and 
fascinating tilt of its tip which waveringly bends over in 
obedience to whichever breeze is blowing makes it the most 
alluringly feminine of all the trees of the Sierra Nevada. 

It is interesting to note the differences in the cones, and 
in the way they grow ; singly, in clusters, at the end of 
branches, on the stems, large, medium-sized, small, short and 



300 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

stubby, long and slender, conical, etc. Then, too, while the 
pines generally have cones every year, the firs seem to miss 
a year, and to bear only alternate years. 

The gray squirrels are often great reapers of the cones, 
before they are ripe. They cut them down and then eat ofE 
the tips of the scales so that they present a pathetically 
stripped appearance. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

THE BIRDS AND ANIMALS OF THE TAHOE REGION 

BIRDS. The bird life of the Tahoe region does not 
seem particularly interesting or impressive to the 
casual observer. At first sight there are not many 
birds, and those that do appear have neither so vivid plumage 
nor sweet song as their feathered relatives of the east, south 
and west. Nevertheless there are several interesting species, 
and while this chapter makes no pretense to completeness it 
suggests what one untrained observer without birds particu- 
larly on his mind has witnessed in the course of his several 
trips to the Tahoe region. 

It soon becomes evident that altitude has much to do with 
bird life, some, as the meadow-lark and blackbird never be- 
ing found higher than the Lake shore, others at the interme- 
diate elevations where the Alpine hemlock thrives, while still 
others, such as the rosy finch and the rock-wren, are found 
only on the highest and most craggy peaks. 

While water birds are not numerous in the summer, observ- 
ant visitors at Lake Tahoe for the first time are generally sur- 
prised to find numbers of sea gulls. They fly back and forth, 
however, to and from their native haunts by the sea. They 
never raise their young here, generally making their return 
flight to the shores of the Pacific in September, October and 
at latest November, to come back in March and April. 
While out on the mountain in these months, fifty or more 
miles west of Lake Tahoe I have seen them, high in the air, 
flying straight to the place they desired. 

The blue heron in its solitary and stately watchfulness is 

301 



302 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

occasionally seen, and again etches itself like a Japanese pic- 
ture against the pure blue of the sky. The American bit- 
tern is also seen rarely. 

Kingfishers are found, both on the lakes and streams. It 
is fascinating to watch them unobserved, perched on a twig, 
as motionless as if petrified, until, suddenly, their prey is 
within grasp, and with a sudden splash is seized. 

On several of the lakes, occasionally on bays of Tahoe it- 
self, and often in the marshy lands and sloughs of the Upper 
Truckee, near Tallac, ducks, mallard and teal are found. 
Mud chickens in abundance are also found pretty nearly 
everywhere all through the year. 

The weird cry of the loon is not infrequently heard on 
some of the lakes, and one of these latter is named Loon Lake 
from the fact that several were found there for a number 
of years. 

Flocks of white pelicans are sometimes seen. Blackbirds 
of two or three kinds are found in the marshes, also killdeer, 
jacksnipe and the ever active and interesting spotted sand- 
pipers. A few meadow-larks now and again are heard sing- 
ing their exquisite song, reminding one of Browning's wise 
thrush which " sings each song twice over, lest you should 
think he cannot recapture that first fine careless rapture." 

Doves are not common, but now and again one may hear 
their sweet melancholy song, telling us in Joaquin Miller's 
poetic and exquisite interpretation: 

There are many to-morrows, my love, my love, 
But only one to-day. 

In the summer robins are frequently seen. Especially do 
they revel on the lawns at Tahoe Tavern, their red-breasts 
and their peculiar " smithing " or " cokeing " just as alluring 
and interesting as the plumage and voices of the richer 
feathered and finer songsters of the bird family. 

Mountain quails are quite common, and one sometimes sees 



THE BIRDS AND ANIMALS 303 

a dozen flocks in a day. Grouse are fairly plentiful. One 
day just on the other side of Granite Chief Peak a fine speci- 
men sailed up and out from the trail at our very feet, soared 
for quite a distance, as straight as a bullet to its billet for a 
cluster of pine trees, and there hid in the branches. My 
guide walked down, gun in hand, ready to shoot, and as he 
came nearer, two others dashed up in disconcerting sudden- 
ness and flew, one to the right, the other to the left. We 
never got a sight of any of them again. 

At another time I was coming over by Split Crag from the 
Lake of the Woods, with Mr. Price, of Fallen Leaf Lodge, 
when two beautiful grouse arose from the trail and soared 
away in their characteristic style. 

At one time sage-hens were not infrequent on the Nevada 
side of the Lake, and as far west as Brockways. Indeed it 
used to be a common thing for hunters, in the early days, to 
come from Truckee, through Martis Valley, to the Hot 
Springs (as Brockways was then named) and shoot sage-hens 
all along the way. A few miles north of Truckee, Sage Hen 
Creek still preserves, in the name, the fact that the sage-hen 
was well known there. 

Bald-headed and golden eagles are often seen in easy and 
circular flight above the highest peaks. In the fall and winter 
they pass over into the wild country near the almost inaccess- 
ible peaks above the American River and there raise their 
young. One year Mr. Price observed a pair of golden, eagles 
which nested on Mt. Tallac. He and I were seated at lunch 
one day in September, 19 13, on the very summit of Pyramid 
Peak, when, suddenly, as a bolt out of a clear sky, startling 
us with its wild rush, an eagle shot obliquely at us from the 
upper air. The speed with which it fell made a noise as of 
a "rushing mighty wind." Down! down, it fell, and then 
with the utmost grace imaginable, swept up, still going at ter- 
rific speed, circled about, and was soon lost to sight. 



304 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Almost as fond of the wind-tossed pines high up on the 
slopes of the mountain as is the eagle of the most rugged peaks, 
is Clark's crow, a grayish white bird, with black wings, and 
a harsh, rasping call, somewhat between that of a crow and 
the jay. 

Of an entirely different nature, seldom seen except on the 
topmost peaks, is the rosy-headed finch. While on the sum- 
mit of Pyramid Peak, we saw two of them, and one of them 
favored us with his (or her) sweet, gentle song. 

Hawks are quite common ; among those generally seen are 
the long tailed grouse-hawk, the sparrow hawk, and the sharp- 
shinned hawk. Night-hawks are quite conspicuous, if one 
walks about after sunset. They are dusky with a white 
throat and band on the wing. They sail through the air 
without any effort, wings outspread and beak wide open, and 
thus glean their harvest of winged insects as they skim along. 
Oftentimes their sudden swoop will startle you as they rush 
by. 

Woodpeckers are numerous, and two or three species may 
be seen almost anywhere in a day's walk through one of the 
wooded sections. Many are the trees which bear evidence of 
their industry, skill and providence. The huge crow-like 
pileolated woodpecker with its scarlet crest, the red-shafted 
flicker, the Sierra creeper, the red-breasted sap-sucker, Wil- 
liamson's sap-sucker, the white-headed woodpecker, Cabanis's 
woodpecker with spotted wings and gray breast, the most com- 
mon of woodpeckers, and Lewis's woodpecker, a large heavy 
bird, glossy black above, with a white collar and a rich red 
underpart, have all been seen for many years in succession. 

The red-breasted sap-sucker and Williamson's sap-sucker 
are found most frequently among the aspens and willows 
along the lake shore, while the red-shafted flicker, Cabanis's 
woodpecker, and the white-head favor the w'oods. One ob- 
server says the slender-billed nut-hatch is much more common 



THE BIRDS AND ANIMALS 305 

than the red-breasted, and that his nasal laugh resounded at 
all times through the pines. 

High up in the hemlock forests is the interesting Alpine 
three-toed woodpecker. It looks very much like Cabanis's, 
only it has three toes in place of four, and a yellow crown 
instead of a black and red one. 

In importance after the woodpeckers come the members of 
the sparrow family that inhabit the Tahoe region. The 
little black-headed snowbird, Thurber's junco, is the most 
common of all the Tahoe birds. The thick-billed sparrow, 
a grayish bird with spotted breast and enormous bill is found 
on all the brushy hillsides and is noted for its glorious bursts 
of rich song. 

Now and again one will see a flock of English sparrows, 
and the sweet-voiced song-sparrow endeavors to make up for 
the vulgarity of its English cousin by the delicate softness of 
its peculiar song. 

Others of the family are the two purple finches (reddish 
birds), the pine-finch, very plain and streaked, the green- 
tailed towhee, with its cat-like call, and the white-crowned 
sparrow, — its sweetly melancholy song, " Oh, dear me," in 
falling cadence, is heard in every Sierran meadow. 

The mountain song-sparrow, western lark, western chip- 
ping-fox, gold-finch, and house- and cassin-finches are seen. 
The fly-catchers are omnipresent in August, though their shy 
disposition makes them hard to identify. Hammond, olive- 
sided and western pewee are often seen, and at times the tall 
tree-tops are alive with kinglets. 

Some visitors complain that they do not often see or hear 
the warblers, but in 1905, one bird-lover reported seven com- 
mon representatives. She says: 

The yellow bird was often heard and seen in the willows 
along the Lake. Late in August the shrubs on the shore 
were alive with the Audubon group, which is so abundant 



3o6 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

in the vicinity of Los Angeles all winter. Pileolated war- 
blers, with rich yellow suits and black caps, hovered like 
hummers among the low shrubs in the woods. Now and 
then a Pacific yellow-throat sang his bewitching " wichity 
wichity, wichity, wee." Hermit and black-throated gray 
warblers were also recorded. The third week in August 
there was an extensive immigration of Macgillivray war- 
blers. Their delicate gray heads, yellow underparts, and the 
bobbing movement of the tail, distinguished them from the 
others. 

The water ouzel finds congenial habitat in the canyons of 
the Tahoe region, and the careful observer may see scores of 
them as he walks along the streams and by the cascades and 
waterfalls during a summer's season. At one place they are 
so numerous as to have led to the naming of a beautiful water- 
fall. Ouzel Falls, after them. Another bird is much sought 
after and can be seen and heard here, perhaps as often as any 
other place in the country. That is the hermit thrush, small, 
delicate, grayish, with spotted breast. The shyness of the 
bird is proverbial, and it frequents the deepest willow and 
aspen thickets. Once heard, its sweet song can never be for- 
gotten, and happy is he who can get near enough to hear it 
undisturbed. Far off, it is flute-like, pure and penetrating, 
though not loud. Gradually it softens until it sounds but 
as the faintest of tinkling bell-like notes, which die away 
leaving one with the assurance that he has been hearing the 
song of the chief bird of the fairies, or of birds which accom- 
pany the heavenly lullabies of the mother angels putting their 
baby angels to sleep. 

Cliff-swallows often nest on the high banks at Tahoe City, 
and a few have been seen nesting under the eaves of the store 
on the wharf. The nests of barn swallows also have been 
found under the eaves of the ice-house. 

Nor must the exquisite hummers be overlooked. In Truc- 
kee Canyon, and near Tahoe Tavern they are quite numer- 



THE BIRDS AND ANIMALS 307 

ous. They sit on the telephone wires and try to make you 
listen to their pathetic and scarcely discernible song, and as 
you sit on the seats at the Tavern, if you happen to have 
some bright colored object about you, especially red, they will 
flit to and fro eagerly seeking for the honey-laden flower 
that red ought to betoken. 

Several times down Truckee Canyon I have seen wild ca- 
naries. They are rather rare, as are also the Louisiana tan- 
ager, most gorgeous of all the Tahoe birds, and the black- 
headed grosbeak. 

Of the wrens, both the rock wren and the canyon wren 
are occasionally seen, the peculiar song of the latter bringing 
a thrill of cheer to those who are familiar with its falling 
chromatic scale. 

Then there is the merry chick-a-dee-dee, the busy creepers, 
and the nut-hatches hunting for insects on the tree trunks. 

The harsh note of the blue jay is heard from Tahoe 
Tavern, all around the Lake and in almost every wooded 
slope in the Sierras. He is a noisy, generally unlovable 
creature, and the terror of the small birds in the nesting 
season, because of his well-known habit of stealing eggs and 
young. At Tahoe Tavern, however, I found several of 
them that were shamed into friendliness of behavior, and 
astonishing tameness, by the chipmunks. They would come 
and eat nuts from my fingers, and one of them several times 
came and perched upon my shoulder. There is also the 
grayish solitaire which looks very much like the mocking- 
bird of less variable climes. 

The foregoing account of the birds, which I submitted for 
revision to Professor Peter Frandsen, of the University of 
Nevada, called forth from him the following: 

I have very little to add to this admirable bird account. 
Besides the gulls, their black relatives, the swallow-like 
terns, are occasionally seen. The black-crowned night- 



3o8 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

heron is less common than the great blue heron. Clarke's 
crow is more properly called Clarke's nutcracker — a dif- 
ferent genus. The road robin or chewink is fairly common 
in the thickets above the Lake. Nuttal's poor will, with 
its call of two syllables, is not infrequently heard at night. 
The silent mountain blue-bird, sialia arcticUj is sometimes 
seen. So is the western warbling vireo. The solitary 
white-rumped shrike is occasionally met with in late sum- 
mer. Owls are common but what species other than the 
western horned owl I do not know. Other rather rare 
birds are the beautiful lazuli bunting and the western 
warbling vireo. Among the wood-peckers I have also noted 
the bristle-bellied wood-pecker, or Lewis's wood-pecker, 
Harris's wood-pecker, and the downy wood-pecker. 

ANIMALS. These are even more numerous than the 
birds, though except to the experienced observer many of 
them are seldom noticed. 

While raccoons are not found on the eastern slopes of the 
High Sierras, or in the near neighborhood of the Lake, they 
are not uncommon on the western slopes, near the Rubicon 
and the headwaters of the various forks of the American and 
other near-by rivers. 

Watson assured me that every fall he sees tracks on the 
Rubicon and in the Hell Hole region of very large mountain 
lions. They hide, among other places, under and on the 
limbs of the wild grapevines, which here grow to unusual size. 
In the fall of 19 12 he saw some strange markings, and 
following them was led to a cluster of wild raspberry vines, 
among which was a dead deer covered over with fir boughs. 
In telling me the story he said: 

I can generally read most of the things I see in the woods, 
but this completely puzzled me. I determined to find out 
all there was to be found. Close by I discovered the fir 
from which the boughs had been stripped. It was as if 
some one of giant strength had reached up to a height of 
seven or eight feet and completely stripped the tree of all 



THE BIRDS AND ANIMALS 309 

its lower limbs. Then I asked myself the question: 
"Who's camping here?" I thought he had used these 
limbs to make a bed of. But there was no water nearby, 
and no signs of camping, so I saw that was a wrong lead. 
Then I noticed that the limbs were too big to be torn off 
by a man's hands, and there were blood stains all about. 
Then I found the fragments of a deer. " Now," I said 
to myself, " I've got it. A bear has killed this deer and 
has eaten part of it and will come back for the rest." You 
know a bear does this sometimes. But when I hunted for 
bear tracks there wasn't a sign of a bear. Then I assumed 
that some hunter had been along, killed a doe (contrary 
to law), had eaten what he could and hidden the rest, cov- 
ering the hide with leaves and these branches. But then I 
knew a hunter would cut off those branches with a knife, 
and these were torn off. The blood spattered about, the 
torn-off boughs and the fact that there were no tracks puz- 
zled me, and I felt there was a mystery and, probably, a 
tragedy. 

But a day or two later I met a woodsman friend of mine, 
and I took him to the spot. He explained the whole thing 
clearly. As soon as he saw it he said, " That's a mountain- 
lion." *'But," said I, "Where's his tracks?" "He 
didn't make any," he replied, " he surprised the doe by 
crawling along the vines. I've found calves and deer hid- 
den like this before, and I've seen clear traces of the pan- 
thers, and once I watched one as he killed, ate and then hid 
his prey. But as you know he won't touch it after it be- 
gins to decompose, but a bear will. And that's the reason 
we generally think it is a bear that does the killing, when 
in reality it is a mountain lion who has had his fill and 
left the remains for other predatory animals, while he has 
gone off to hunt for a fresh kill. 

Occasionally sheep-herders report considerable devastations 
from mountain-lions and bear to the Forest Rangers. James 
Bryden, who grazes his sheep on the Tahoe reserve near 
Downieville, lost sixteen sheep in one night in July, 191 1. 

There are three kinds each of chipmunks and ground- 
squirrels. All of the former have striped backs and do more 



3IO THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

or less climbing of trees. Of their friendliness, greediness, 
and even sociability — where nuts are in evidence or anticipated 
— I have written fully in the chapter on Tahoe Tavern. Of 
the three ground-squirrels the largest is the common ground- 
squirrel of the valleys of California. It is gray, somewhat 
spotted on the back, and has a whitish collar and a bushy 
tail. The next in size is the " picket-pin," so called from 
his habit of sitting bolt upright on his haunches and remain- 
ing steadfast there, without the slightest movement, until 
danger threatens, when he whisks away so rapidly that it 
is quite impossible to follow his movements. In color he 
is of a grayish brown, with thick-set body, and short, slim 
tail. He has an exceeding sharp call, and makes his home 
in grassy meadows from the level of the Lake nearly to the 
summits of the highest peaks. The " copper-head " is the 
other ground-squirrel, though by some he may be regarded 
as a chipmunk, for he has a striped back. 

The flying squirrel is also found here. It comes out only 
at night and lives In holes in trees. On each side between 
the fore and hind legs it has a hairy flap, which when 
stretched out makes the body very broad, and together with 
its hairy tail it is enabled to sail from one tree to another, 
though always alighting at a lower level. A more correct 
name would be a " sailing " squirrel. The fur is very soft, 
of a mouse color and the animal makes a most beautiful pet. 
It has great lustrous eyes and is about a foot in length. 

The tree squirrel about the Lake is the pine squirrel or 
" chickeree." The large tree squirrel is abundant on the 
west slope of the Sierra from about six thousand feet down- 
ward, but it is not in the Lake basin, so far as I am aware. 
The pine squirrel is everywhere, from the Lake side to the 
summits of the highest wooded peaks. It is dark above, 
whitish to yellow below, usually with a black line along the 
side. The tail is full, bushy, the hairs tipped with white 



THE BIRDS AND ANIMALS 311 

forming a broad fringe. It feeds on the seeds of the pine 
cones. 

The woodchuck or marmot is a huge, lumbering, squirrel- 
like animal in the rocky regions, wholly terrestrial and 
feeding chiefly on roots and grass. The young are fairly 
good eating and to shoot them with a rifle is some sport. 

Of the fur bearing and carnivorous animals the otter, 
fisher, etc., all are uncommon, though some are trapped every 
year by residents of the Lake. The otter and mink live 
along the larger streams and on the Lake shore where they 
feed chiefly on fish. They may sometimes catch a wild 
fowl asleep. The martin and fisher live in pine trees usu- 
ally in the deepest forests, and they probably prey on 
squirrels, mice and birds. They are usually nocturnal in 
their habits. The martin is the size of a large tree squir- 
rel; the fisher is about twice that size. The foxes are not 
often seen, but the coyote is everywhere, a scourge to the few 
bands of sheep. Often at night his long-drawn, doleful 
howl may be heard, a fitting sound in some of the wild granite 
canyons; 

One day while passing Eagle Crag, opposite Idlewild, the 
summer residence of C. F. Kohl, of San Francisco, with 
Bob Watson, he informed me that, in 1877, he was follow- 
ing the tracks of a deer and they led him to a cave or 
grotto in the upper portion of the Crag. While he stood 
looking in at the entrance a snarling coyote dashed out, far 
more afraid of him than he was surprised at the sudden 
appearance of the creature. 

A few bears are still found in the farther away recesses 
of the Sierras, and on one mountain range close to the Lake, 
viz., the one on which Freel's, Job's and Job's Sister are the 
chief peaks. These are brown or cinnamon, and black. 
There are no grizzlies found on the eastern slopes of the 
Sierras, nowadays, and it is possible they never crossed the 



312 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

divide from the richer-clad western slopes. In September, 
1 91 3, a hunting party, led by Mr. Comstock, of Tallac, and 
Lloyd Tevis, killed two black bears, one of them weighing 
fully four hundred pounds, on Freel's Mountain, and in 
the same season Mr. Carl Flugge, of Cathedral Park, 
brought home a good-sized cinnamon from the Rubicon 
country, the skin of which now adorns my office floor. 

The grizzly has long since been driven from the moun- 
tains, though there may be a few in southern Alpine County, 
but the evidence is not conclusive. The panther is migra- 
tory, preying on young colts and calves. They are not at 
all common, though some are heard of every year. The 
" ermine " is pure white in winter, except the tip of the tail, 
which is black. It is yellowish brown in summer. 

There are two rabbits, one a huge jackrabbit of the great 
plains region, the other the " snowshoe " rabbit, so called 
because of his broad furry feet which keep it from sinking 
into the soft snow in winter. Both rabbits are very rare, 
and probably both turn white in winter. I have seen speci- 
mens of the snowshoe rabbit taken in winter that are pure 
white. 

On the wildest and most desolate peaks and rock piles is 
found the cony or pika or " rock rabbit " as it is variously 
called. It is small, only six inches or so in length, tailless 
but with large round ears and soft grayish fur like a rab- 
bit's. 

The jumping mouse is interesting. It may be seen some- 
times at evening in swampy areas and meadows. It is yel- 
lowish above, whitish below, with an extremely long tail. 
It travels by long leaps, takes readily to the water and is an 
expert swimmer. The meadow mice are bluish grey and 
are found in swampy places. The wood mice are pure 
white below, brown above and are found everywhere. 

Quite a number of badgers are to be found in the Tahoe 



THE BIRDS AND ANIMALS 313 

region, and they must find abundance of good food, for the 
specimens I have seen were rolling in fat, and as broad backed 
as a fourteen inch board. 

Several times, also, have I seen porcupines, one of them, 
weighing fully twenty-five pounds, on the slopes of Mt. 
Watson, waddling along as if he were a small bear. They 
live on the tender bark of the mountain and tamarack pines, 
sometimes girdling the trees and causing them to die. They 
are slow-gaited creatures, easily caught by dogs, but with 
their needle spines, and the sharp, quick-slapping action of 
their tails, by means of which they can thrust, insert, inject 
— which is the better word ? — a score or more of these 
spines into a dog's face, they are antagonists whose prowess 
cannot be ignored. 

Very few people would think of the porcupine as an ani- 
mal destructive to forest trees, yet one of the Tahoe Forest 
rangers reports that in the spring of 191 3 fifty young trees, 
averaging thirty feet high, were killed or ruined by porcu- 
pines stripping them of their bark. Sometimes as many as 
ninety per cent, of the young trees growing on a burned-over 
area are thus destroyed. They travel and feed at night, 
hence the ordinary observer would never know their habits. 

The bushy-tailed woodrat proves itself a nuisance about 
the houses where it is as omnivorous an eater as is its far- 
removed cousin, the house rat. The gopher is one of the 
mammals whose mark is more often seen than the creature 
itself. It lives like the mole in underground burrows, com- 
ing to the surface only to push up the dirt that it has been 
digging. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

THE SQUAW VALLEY MINING EXCITEMENT 

THE Tahoe region was once thrilled through and 
through by a real mining excitement that belonged 
to itself alone. It had felt the wonderful activity 
that resulted from the discovery of the Comstock lode in 
Virginia City, It had seen its southern border crowded with 
miners and prospectors hurrying to the new field, and later 
had heard the blasting and picking, the shoveling and dump- 
ing of rocks while the road from Placerville was being con- 
structed. 

It had seen another road built up from Carson over the 
King's Canyon grade, and lumber mills established at Glen- 
brook in order to supply the mines with timbers for their 
tunnels and excavations, as the valuable ore and its attendant 
waste-rocks were hauled to the surface. 

But now it was to have an excitement and a stampede 
all its own. An energetic prospector from Georgetown, El 
Dorado County, named Knox, discovered a big ledge of 
quartz in Squaw Valley. It was similar rock to that in 
which the Comstock silver was found in large quantities. 
Though the assays of the floating-rock did not yield a large 
amount of the precious metals, they showed a little — as high 
as $3.50 per ton. This was enough. There were bound 
to be higher grade ores deeper down. The finder filed his 
necessary " locations," and doubtless aided by copious 
draughts of " red-eye " saw, in swift imagination, his claim 
develop into a mine as rich as those that had made the mil- 

314 



SQUAW VALLEY MINING EXCITEMENT 315 

lionaires of Virginia City. Anyhow the rumor spread like 
a prairie fire, and men came rushing in from Georgetown, 
Placerville, Last Chance, Kentucky Flat, Michigan Bluff, 
Hayden Hall, Dutch Flat, Baker Divide, Yankee Jim, May- 
flower, Paradise, Yuba, Deadwood, Jackass Gulch and all 
the other camps whose locators and residents had not been 
as fortunate financially as they were linguistically. 

Knox started a " city " which he named Knoxville, the 
remains of which are still to be seen in the shape of ruined 
log-cabins, stone chimneys, foundations of hewed logs, a 
graveyard, etc., on the left hand side of the railway coming 
from Truckee, and about six miles from Tahoe. 

One has but to let his imagination run riot for a few mo- 
ments to see this now deserted camp a scene of the greatest 
activity. The many shafts and tunnels, dump-piles and 
prospect-holes show how busy a spot it must have been. The 
hills about teemed with men. At night the log store — still 
standing — and the saloons — tents, shacks and log houses — 
were crowded with those who sought in the flowing bowl 
some surcease from the burden of their arduous labors. 

Now and again a shooting took place, a man actually 
" died with his boots on," as in the case of one King, a bad 
man from Texas who had a record, and whose sudden end 
was little, if any, lamented. He had had a falling out with 
the store-keeper, Tracey, and had threatened to kill him on 
sight. The former bade him keep away from his store, but 
King laughed at the prohibition, and with the blind daring 
that often counts as courage with such men — for he assumed 
that the store-keeper would not dare to shoot — he came 
down the following day, intending himself to do all the 
shooting there was to be done. But he reckoned mistakenly. 
Tracey saw him coming, came to the door, bade him Halt! 
and on his sneering refusal, shot the bad man dead. 

In September, 19 13, I paid a visit to Knoxville. Just 



3i6 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

above the town, on the eastern slope of the mountain, were 
several tunnels and great dump-piles, clearly showing the 
vast amount of work that had been done. The quartz ledge 
that caused the excitement was distinctly in evidence, in- 
deed, when the Tahoe Railway roadbed was being graded, 
this quartz ledge was blasted into, and the director of opera- 
tions sent a number of specimens for assay, the rock looked 
so favorable. 

Here and there were the remains of old log-cabins, with 
their outside stone chimneys. In some cases young tama- 
racks, fifteen and twenty feet high, had grown up within the 
areas once confined by the walls. These ruins extended all 
the way down to Deer Creek, showing the large number of 
inhabitants the town once possessed. 

I saw the graveyard by the side of the river, where King's 
body was the first to be buried, and I stood in the doorway 
of the store from which the shot that killed him was fired. 

In imagination, I saiw the whole life of the camp, as I have 
seen mining-camps after a stampede in Nevada. The shacks, 
rows of tents, and the rudely scattered and varied dwellings 
that the ingenuity and skill of men hastily extemporized. 
Most of the log-houses are now gone, their charred remnants 
telling of the indifferent carelessness of campers, prospectors 
or Indians. 

The main street was in a pretty little meadowed vale, 
lined on either side with trees, and close to the Truckee, 
which here rushes and dashes and roars and sparkles among 
the bowlders and rocks that bestrew its bed. 

When it was found the ore did not " pan out," the excite- 
ment died down even more rapidly than it arose, and in 
1863-4 the camp was practically dead. 

It has been charged that the Squaw Valley claims were 
" salted " with ore brought from Virginia City. I am in- 
clined to doubt this, and many of the old timers deny it. 



SQUAW VALLEY MINING EXCITEMENT 317 

They assert that Knox was " on the square " and that he 
firmly believed he had paying ore. It is possible there may 
have been the salting of an individual claim or so after the 
camp started, but the originators of the camp started it in 
good faith, as they themselves w^ere the greatest losers when 
the " bottom " of the excitement dropped out. 

About a mile further up the river is still to be seen the 
site of the rival town of Claraville, founded at the same 
time as Knoxville. There is little left here, though the as- 
say office, built up against a massive square rock still stands. 
It is of hewed timbers rudely dovetailed together at the 
corners. 

It would scarcely be worth while to recount even this 
short history of the long dead, — almost stillborn — Squaw 
Valley camp were it not for the many men it brought to 
Lake Tahoe who have left their impress and their names 
upon its most salient canyons, streams, peaks and other land- 
marks. Many of these have been referred to elsewhere. 

One of the first to arrive was William Pomin, the brother 
of the present captain of the steamer Tahoe. His wife 
gave birth to the first white child born on Lake Tahoe, and 
she was named after the Lake. She now lives in San Fran- 
cisco. When she was no more than two or three months 
old, her mother took her on mule-back, sixty miles over the 
trail to Forest Hill, in one day. Pomin removed to the 
north shore of the Lake when Squaw Valley " busted," and 
was one of the founders of Tahoe City, building and con- 
ducting one of the first hotels there. 

Another of these old timers was J. W. McKinney, from 
whom McKinney's was named. He came from the mining- 
camp of Georgetown over the trail, and engaged himself in 
selling town lots at Knoxville. He and Knox had worked 
together in the El Dorado excitement. 

He originally came over the plains in the gold-alluring 



3i8 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

days of '49. When his party reached the land of the In- 
dians, these aborigines were too wise to make open attacks. 
They hit upon the dastardly method of shooting arrows into ' 
the bellies of the oxen, so that the pioneers would be com- 
pelled to abandon them. One night McKinney was on 
guard duty. He was required to patrol back and forth and 
meet another sentinel at a certain tree. There they would 
stop and chat for a few moments before resuming their soli- 
tary march. Just before day-break, after a few words, they 
separated. On answering the breakfast call McKinney 
found he was alone, and on going back to investigate, found 
his companion lying dead with an arrow through his heart. 
The moccasin tracks of an Indian clearly revealed who was 
the murderer, and a little study showed that the Indian had 
swam the river, waited until the sentinel passed close by 
him, and had then sent the arrow true to its fatal mark. 

The next night the Indians shot an arrow into an ox. In 
the morning it was unable to travel, but McKinney and his 
friends had determined to do something to put a stop to 
these attacks. Taking the ox in the shadow of a knoll, they 
shot it, and eight men then hid in the shelter of some brush 
where the carcass was clearly in view. 

When the train pulled out it seemed as if they had aban- 
doned the ox. It was scarcely out of sight when the watch- 
ers saw eight Indians come sneaking up. Each man took 
the Indian allotted to him, but by some error two men shot 
at the same Indian, so that when the guns were fired and 
seven men fell dead the other escaped. On one of them was 
found seven twenty-dollar gold pieces wrapped up in a dirty 
rag, which had doubtless cost some poor emigrant or miner 
his life. Some of the party wished to leave this gold with 
the dead Indian, but McKinney said his scruples would not 
allow him to do any such thing, and the gold found its way 
into his pocket. 



SQUAW VALLEY MINING EXCITEMENT 319 

Though a man of practically no education — it is even said 
by those who claim to have known him well that he could 
neither read nor write, but this seems improbable — he was 
a man of such keen powers of observation, retentive memory, 
ability in conversation and strong personality, that he was 
able to associate on an equality with men of most superior 
attainments. John Muir was a frequent visitor to his home, 
especially in the winter time when all tourists and resort 
guests had gone away. John McGee, another well-known 
lover of the winter mountains, was also a welcome guest, who 
fully appreciated the manly vigor and sterling character of 
the transplanted Missourian. 

John Ward, from whom Ward Creek and Ward Peak 
(8665 feet) are named, was another Squaw Valley mining 
excitement stampeder. He came in the early days of the 
rush, and as soon as the camp died down, located on the 
mouth of the creek that now bears his name. 

The next creek to the south — Blackwood's, — Is named 
after still another Squaw Valley stampeder. For years he 
lived at the mouth of this creek and gained his livelihood as 
a fisherman. 

The same explanation accounts for Dick Madden Creek. 

Barker who has peak, pass and valley named after him, 
came from Georgetown to Knoxville, and like so many other 
of his unfortunate mining brethren from over the divide, 
started a dairy on the west side of the pass which bears his 
name. The valley, however, was so high and cold that 
more than half the year the cream would not rise, so he gave 
up dairying and went elsewhere. 

These are but a few of many who might be mentioned, 
whose names are linked with the Tahoe region, and who came 
to it in the hope of " making their everlasting fortunes " when 
Squaw Valley " started up." 



CHAPTER XXXV 

THE FREMONT HOWITZER AND LAKE TAHOE 

HUNDREDS of thousands of Americans doubtless 
have read " How a Woman's Wit Saved Cali- 
fornia to the Union," yet few indeed know how 
intimately that fascinating piece of history is linked with 
Lake Tahoe. 

Here is the story of the link: 

When Fremont started out on his Second Exploration 
(fairly well dealt with in another chapter), he stopped at 
the Kansas frontier to equip. When he finally started, the 
party ( io8) was armed generally with Hall's carbines, which, 
says Fremont: 

with a brass twelve-pound howitzer, had been furnished 
to me from the United States arsenal at St. Louis, agree- 
ably to the command of Colonel S. W. Kearny, command- 
ing the third military division. Three men were espe- 
cially detailed for the management of this, under the charge 
of Louis Zindel, a native of Germany, who had been nine- 
teen years a non-commissioned officer of the artillery in the 
Prussian army, and regularly instructed in the duties of 
his profession. 

As soon as the news that he had added a cannon to his 
equipment reached Washington, the Secretary of War, James 
M. Porter, sent a message after him, post haste, counter- 
manding the expedition on the ground that he had prepared 
himself with a military equipment, which the pacific nature 
of his journey did not require. It was specially charged as 

320 



THE FREMONT HOWITZER 321 

a heinous offense that he had procured a small mountain 
howitzer from the arsenal at St. Louis, in addition to his 
other firearms. 

But Fremont had already started. He was not far on 
his way, and the message could have reached him easily. It 
was not destined to do so, however, until after his return. 
The message came to the hands of his girl-wife, Jessie Ben- 
ton Fremont, the daughter of Missouri's great senator, 
Thomas H. Benton, and she knew, as Charles A. Moody 
has well written, that 

this order, obeyed, would indefinitely postpone the expedi- 
tion — probably wreck it entirely. She did not forward it. 
Consulting no one, since there was no one at hand to con- 
sult, she sent a swift messenger to her husband with word 
to break camp and move forward at once — " he could not 
have the reason for haste, but there was reason enough." 
And he, knowing well and well trusting the sanity and 
breadth of that girl-brain, hastened forward, unquestioning, 
while she promptly informed the officer whose order she 
had vetoed, what she had done, and why. So far as hu- 
man wit may penetrate, obedience to that backward sum- 
mons would have meant, three years later, the winning of 
California by another nation — and what that loss would 
have signified to the United States none can know fully, 
but any may partly guess who realizes a part of what Cali- 
fornia has meant for us. 

In commenting later upon this countermand of the Ex- 
pedition Fremont remarks: 

It is not probable that I would have been recalled from 
the Missouri frontier to Washington to explain why I had 
taken an arm that simply served to increase the means of 
defense for a small party very certain to encounter Indian 
hostility, and which involved very trifling expense. The 
administration in Washington was apparently afraid of the 
English situation in Oregon. 

Unconscious, therefore, of his wife's action, — which might 



322 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

easily have ruined his career — Fremont pushed on. The 
howitzer accompanied him into Oregon, back through into 
Nevada, and is clearly seen in the picture of Pyramid Lake 
drawn by Mr. Preuss (which appears in the original report), 
showing it after it had traveled in the neighborhood of four 
thousand miles. 

The last time it was fired as far as the Fremont Expedi- 
tion is concerned was on Christmas Eve, in 1843. The 
party was camped on Christmas Lake, now known as 
Warner Lake, Oregon, and the following morning the gun 
crew wakened Fremont with a salute, fired in honor of the 
day. A month later, two hundred and fifty miles south, 
it was to be abandoned in the mountains near West Walker 
River, on account of the deep snow which made it impos- 
sible for the weary horses to drag it further. 

On the 28th of January Fremont thus writes: 

To-night we did not succeed in getting the howitzer into 
camp. This was the most laborious day we had yet passed 
through, the steep ascents and deep snows exhausting both 
men and animals. 

Possibly now the thought began to take possession of him 
that the weapon must be left behind. For long weary days 
it had been a constant companion. It had been dragged over 
the plains, mountains and canyons. It was made to ford 
rivers, plunge through quicksands and wallow through bog, 
mire, mud, marsh and snow. Again and again it delayed 
them when coming over sandy roads, but tenaciously Fremont 
held on to it. Now deep snow forbade its being dragged 
further. Haste over the high mountains of the Sierra Ne- 
vada was imperative, for such peaks and passes are no lady's 
playground when the forces of winter begin to linger there, 
yet one can well imagine the regret and distress felt by the 
Pathfinder at being compelled to abandon this cannon, to 



THE FREMONT HOWITZER 323 

which he had so desperately clung on all the wearisome 
miles his company had hitherto marched. 
On the 29th he writes : 

The principal stream still running through an impracti- 
cable canyon, we ascended a very steep hill, which proved 
afterwards the last and fatal obstacle to our little howitzer, 
which was finally abandoned at this place. [This place ap- 
pears to be about eight or ten miles up the river from Cole- 
ville, and on the right or east side of the river.] We 
passed through a small meadow a few miles below, cross- 
ing the river, which depth, swift current, and rock, made it 
difficult to ford [this brings him to the west bank for the 
first time, but the cannon did not get this far, and there- 
fore was left on the east side of the river. This is to be 
noted on account of the fact that it was found on the other 
side of the river in another canyon], and after a few more 
miles of very difficult trail, issued into a larger prairie bot- 
tom, at the farther end of which we camped, in a position 
rendered strong by rocks and trees. 

The reader must not forget that the notes in brackets 
[ ] are interjections in Fremont's narrative by Mr. Smith, 
(see the chapter on Fremont's discovery of Lake Tahoe). 

Fremont continues: 

The other division of the party did not come in to-night, 
but camped in the upper meadow, and arrived the next 
morning. They had not succeeded in getting the howitzer 
beyond the place mentioned, and where it had been left by 
Mr. Preuss, in obedience to my orders; and, in anticipation 
of the snow-banks and snow-fields ahead, foreseeing the in- 
evitable detention to which it would subject us, I reluc- 
tantly determined to leave it there for a time. It was of 
the kind invented by the French for the mountain part of 
their war in Algiers; and the distance it had come with us 
proved how well it was adapted to its purpose. We left 
it, to the great sorrow of the whole party, who were 
grieved to part with a companion which had made the whole 



324 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

distance from St. Louis, and commanded respect for us on 
some critical occasions, and which might be needed for the 
same purpose again. 

[It is the impression of those of the old settlers on Walker 
River, of whom we have inquired regarding the subject, 
that the cannon was found early in the 6o's near the head 
of Lost Canyon. This canyon comes into Little Antelope 
Valley — a branch of Antelope Valley — from the south. 
This impression evidently was accepted by the government 
geological surveyors, for they twisted the name of the creek 
coming down this canyon to " Lost Cannon Creek," and 
called a peak, which looks down into this canyon. Lost Can- 
non Peak. The origin of the name of this canyon lies in 
the fact that an emigrant party, on its way to the Sonora 
Pass, and in an endeavor probably to avoid the rough river 
canyon down which Fremont came, essayed this pass instead 
of the meadows above. It is a canyon which, at first, 
promises an easy pass but finally becomes almost impassable. 
The party in question found it necessary to abandon several 
of their wagons before they could get over. They, or an- 
other party, buried one of their men there, also some black- 
smith tools. My endeavors to ascertain what party this 
was have thus far not been successful. Mr. Timothy B. 
Smith, who went to Walker River in 1859, says that the 
wagons were there at that time. The cannon is supposed 
to have been found with or near these wagons. Mr. Rich- 
ard Watkins, of Coleville, who went into that section in 
1 86 1, or soon after, informs me that wagons were also 
found in one of the canyons leading to the Sonora Pass 
from Pickle Meadow. The cannon, according to Mr. 
Watkins, was found with these wagons. At any rate, it 
seems likely that the cannon was not found at the place 
where Fremont left it, but had been picked up by some emi- 
grant party, who, in turn, were compelled to abandon it 
with several of their wagons.] 

For several years the cannon remained where its emigrant 
finders removed it, then at the breaking out of the Civil War, 
" Dan de Quille," William Wright, the author of The Big 
Bonanza, the fellow reporter of Mark Twain on one of the 



THE FREMONT HOWITZER 325 

Virginia City newspapers, called the attention of certain 
belligerent adherents of the south to it, and they determined 
to secure it. But the loyal sons of the Union were also 
alert and Captain A. W. Pray, who was then in the Ne- 
vada mining metropolis, succeeded in getting and maintain- 
ing possession of it. As he moved to Glenbrook, on Lake 
Tahoe, that year, he took the cannon with him. Being 
mounted on a carriage with fairly high wheels, these latter 
were taken and converted into a hay-wagon, with which, for 
several years, he hauled hay from the Glenbrook meadows 
to his barn in town. The cannon itself was mounted on 
a heavy wooden block to which it was affixed with iron 
bands, securely held in place by bolts and nuts. For years 
it was used at Glenbrook on all patriotic and special occa- 
sions. Fremont never came back to claim it. The govern- 
ment made no claim upon it. So while Captain Pray re- 
garded it as his own it was commonly understood and gen- 
erally accepted that it was town property, to be used by all 
alike on occasions of public rejoicing. 

After Captain Pray's death, however, the cannon was sold 
by his widow to the Native Sons of Nevada, and the news 
of the sale soon spread abroad and caused no little commo- 
tion. To say that the people were astonished is to put it 
mildly. They were in a state of consternation. Fremont's 
cannon sold and going to be removed? Impossible! No! it 
was so! The purchasers were coming to remove it the next 
day. 

Were they? That remained to be seen! 

That night in the darkness, three or four determined men 
quietly and stealthily removed the nuts from the bolts, and, 
leaving the block of wood, quietly carried the cannon and 
hid it in a car of scrap-iron that was to be transported the 
next day from Glenbrook to Tahoe City. 

When the day dawned and the purchasers arrived, the 



326 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

cannon was not to be found, and no one, apparently, knew 
what had become of it. Solicitations, arguments, threats 
had no effect. The cannon was gone. That was all there 
was to it, and Mrs. Pray and the Nevada purchasers had 
to accept that — to them — disagreeable fact. 

But the cannon was not lost. It was only gone on be- 
fore. For several years it remained hidden under the black- 
smith shop at Tahoe City, its presence known only to the 
few conspirators — one of whom was my informant. About 
five years ago it was resurrected and ever since then its brazen 
throat has bellowed the salutation of the Fourth of July to 
the loyal inhabitants of Tahoe. It now stands on the slight 
hill overlooking the Lake at Tahoe City, a short distance 
east of the hotel. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

THE MOUNT ROSE OBSERVATORY 

WHILE Calif ornians rightly and justly claim Ta- 
hoe as their own, it must not be forgotten that 
Nevadans have an equal claim. In the Nevada 
State University, situated at Reno, there is a magnificent 
band of young men, working and teaching as professors, who 
regard all opportunities as sacred trusts, and who are mak- 
ing for their university a wonderful record of scientific 
achievement for universal benefit. 

Located on the Nevada side of the Tahoe region line, at 
the northeast end of the Lake, is Mount Rose. It is one 
of the most salient and important of the peaks that surround 
Tahoe, its elevation being 10,800 feet. The professor of 
Latin in the Nevada University, James E. Church, Jr., a 
strenuous nature-lover, a mountain-climber, gifted with ro- 
bust physical and mental health, making the ascent of Mt. 
Whitney in March, 1905, was suddenly seized with the 
idea that a meteorological observatory could be established 
on Mt. Rose, and records of temperature, wind, snow or 
rain-fall taken throughout the winter months. The summit 
of Mt. Rose by road is approximately twenty miles in a 
southwesterly direction from Reno, and Professor Church 
and his associates deemed it near enough for week-end visits. 
The courage, energy and robust manliness required to carry 
the work along can be appreciated only by those who have 
gone over the ground in winter, and forms another chapter 
of quiet and unknown heroism in the interest of science 
written by so many of our younger western professors who 

327 



328 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

are not content with mere academic attainment and distinc- 
tion. 

The idea of obtaining winter temperatures on the moun- 
tains of the Pacific Coast was first suggested by Professor 
McAdie, head of the Weather Bureau in San Francisco.^ 
He responded to the request for instruments, and through, 
his recommendation, thermometers, rain-gauge, etc., were 
speedily forthcoming from the Weather Bureau. On June 
24, 1905, with " Billy" and " Randy," family ponies, loaded 
with a newly designed thermometer-shelter, constructed so 
as to withstand winter gales and yet allow the easy exit of 
snow, the first advance on Mt. Rose was made. 

From that day the work has been carried on with a vigor 
and enthusiasm that are thrilling in their inspiration. An 
improved instrument was added that recorded tempera- 
tures on a self-registering roll, all fluctuations, and the high- 
est and lowest temperatures, wind-pressures, all variations 
in humidity, temperature, and air pressure as well as the 
directions and the velocity of the wind for periods of sev- 
enty days and more. This instrument was the achievement 
of Professor S. P. Fergusson, for many years a pioneer 
worker in mountain meteorology at Blue Hill Observatory 
and an associate of Professor Church at the Mount Rose Ob- 
servatory, which has now become a part of the University 
of Nevada. 

After two winters' work it was discovered, on making com- 
parisons with the records at the Central Weather Station 
at Reno, 6268 feet below, that frost forecast could prob- 
ably be made on Mt. Rose from twenty-four to forty-eight 
hours in advance of the appearance of the frost in the lower 
levels, provided the weather current was traveling in its 
normal course eastward from the coast. 

^^ Since this was written Professor McAdie has been appointed to 
the chair of Meteorology at Harvard University. 



THE MOUNT ROSE OBSERVATORY 329 

Second only in importance was the discovery and photo- 
graphic recording of evidence of the value of timber high 
up on mountains, and especially on the lips of canyons, for 
holding the snow until late in the season. 

This latter phase of the Observatory's work has developed 
into a most novel and valuable contribution to practical for- 
estry and conservation of water, under Dr. Church's clear 
and logical direction. At Contact Pass, 9000 feet elevation, 
and at the base of the mountain, supplementary stations have 
been established, where measurements of snow depth and 
density, the evaporation of snow, and temperatures within 
the snow have been taken. Lake Tahoe, with its seventy 
miles of coast line also affords ready access throughout the 
winter, by means of motor boat, snow-shoes and explorer's 
camp, to forests of various types and densities where snow 
measurements of the highest importance have been made. 

Delicate instruments of measurement and weight, etc., 
have been invented by Dr. Church and his associates to meet 
the needs as they have arisen, and continuous observations 
for several years seem to justify the following general con- 
clusions. These are quoted from a bulletin by Dr. Church, 
issued by the International Irrigation Congress. 

The conservation of snow is dependent on mountains and 
forests and is most complete where these two factors are 
combined. The mountain range is not only the recipient 
of more snow than the plain or the valley at its base, but 
in consequence of the lower temperature prevailing on its 
slopes the snow there melts more slowly. 

However, mountains, because of their elevation, are ex- 
posed to the sweep of violent winds which not only blow 
the snow in considerable quantities to lower levels, where 
the temperature is higher, but also dissipate and evaporate 
the snow to a wasteful degree. The southern slopes, also, 
are so tilted as to be more completely exposed to the direct 
rays of the sun, and in, the Sierra Nevada and probably 



330 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

elsewhere are subjected to the persistent action of the pre- 
vailing southwest wind. 

On the other hand, the mountain mass, by breaking the 
force of the wind, causes much of the drifting snow to pile 
up on its lee slope and at the base of its cliffs, where it finds 
comparative shelter from the wind and sun. 

Forests, also, conserve the snow. In wind-swept regions, 
they break the force of the wind, catching the snow and 
holding it in position even on the windward slopes of the 
mountains. On the lower slopes, where the wind is less 
violent, the forests catch the falling snow directly in pro- 
portion to their openness, but conserve it after it has fallen 
directly in proportion to their density. This phenomenon 
is due to the crowns of the trees, which catch the falling 
snow and expose it to rapid evaporation in the open air but 
likewise shut out the sun and wind from the snow that has 
succeeded in passing through the forest crowns to the 
ground. Both mountains and forests, therefore, are to a 
certain extent wasters of snow — the mountains because they 
are partially exposed to sun and wind ; the trees, because 
they catch a portion of the falling snow on their branches 
and expose it to rapid disintegration. However, the moun- 
tains by their mass and elevation conserve immeasurably 
more snow than they waste, and forested areas conserve far 
more snow than unforested. If the unforested mountain 
slopes can be covered with timber, much of the waste now 
occurring on them can be prevented, and by thinning the 
denser forests the source of waste in them also can be 
checked. 

The experiences met with by the voluntary band of ob- 
servers to secure the data needed in their work are romantic 
in the extreme. An average winter trip requires from a day 
and a half to two days and a half from Reno. From the 
base of the mountain the ascent must be made on snow-shoes. 
When work first began there was no building on the summit, 
and no shelter station on the way. Imagine these brave 
fellows, daring the storms and blizzards and fierce tempera- 
tures of winter calmly ascending these rugged and steep 
slopes, in the face of every kind of winter threat, merely to 



THE MOUNT ROSE OBSERVATORY 331 

make scientific observations. In March, 1906, Professor 
Johnson and Dr. Rudolph spent the night at timber-line in 
a pit dug in the snow to obtain protection from a gale, at 
the temperature of 5° Fahr. below zero, and fought their 
way to the summit. But so withering was the gale at that 
altitude even at mid-day, that a precipitate retreat was made 
to avoid freezing. The faces of the climbers showed plainly 
the punishment received. Three days later Dr. Church at- 
tempted to rescue the record just as the storm was passing. 
He made his way in an impenetrable fog to 10,000 feet, 
when the snow and ice-crystals deposited by the storm in a 
state of unstable equilibrium on crust and trees were hurled 
by a sudden gale high into the air in a blinding blizzard. 
During his retreat he wandered into the wildest part of the 
mountain before he escaped from the skirts of the storm. 

Other experiences read like chapters from Peary's or Nan- 
sen's records in the Frozen North, and they are just as heroic 
and thrilling. Yet in face of all these physical difficulties, 
which only the most superb courage and enthusiasm could 
overcome, Dr. Church writes that, to the spirit, the moun- 
tain reveals itself, at midnight and at noon, at twilight and 
at dawn, in storm and in calm, in frost-plume and in ver- 
dure, as a wonderland so remote from the ordinary experi- 
ences of life that the traveler unconsciously deems that he 
is entering another world. 

In the last days of October, 191 3, I was privileged to 
make the trip from Reno in the company of Dr. Church, 
and two others. We were just ahead of winter's storms, 
however, though Old Boreas raved somewhat wildly on the 
summit and covered it with snow a few hours after our 
descent. The experience was one long to be remembered, 
and the personal touch of the heroic spirit afforded by the 
trip will be a permanent inspiration. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

LAKE TAHOE IN WINTER ^ 

By Dr. J. E. Church, Jr., of the University of Nevada 

LAKE TAHOE is an ideal winter resort for the red- 
blooded. For the Viking and the near Viking; for 
the man and the woman who, for the very exhilara- 
tion of it, seek the bracing air and the snow-clad forests, 
Lake Tahoe is as charming in winter as in summer, and far 
grander. There is the same water — in morning placid, in 
afternoon foam-flecked, on days of storm tempestuous. The 
Lake never freezes; not even a film of ice fringes its edge. 
Sunny skies and warm noons and the Lake's own restless- 
ness prevent. Emerald Bay alone is sometimes closed with 
ice, but more often it is as open as the outer Lake. Even 
the pebbles glisten on the beach as far back as the wash of 
the waves extends. 

But beyond the reach of the waves a deep mantle of white 
clads the forests and caps the distant peaks. The refuse 
of the forests, the dusty roads, and the inequalities of the 
ground are all buried deep. A smooth, gently undulating 
surface of dazzling white has taken their place. 

The forest trees are laden with snow — each frond bears 
its pyramid and each needle its plume of white. The fresh 
green of the foliage and the ruddy brown of the bark are 
accentuated rather than subdued by their white setting. 
But as the eye travels the long vista of ascending and re- 

1 By courtesy of Sunset magazine. 

332 




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LAKE TAHOE IN WINTER 333 

treating forest, the green and the brown of the near-by 
trees fade gradually away until the forest becomes a fluffy 
mantle of white upon the distant mountain side. Above 
and beyond the forest's utmost reaches rise the mountain crags 
and peaks, every angle rounded into gentle contours beneath 
its burden of snow. 

Along the margin of the Lake appear the habitations and 
works of men deeply buried and snow-hooded until they re- 
call the scenes in Whittier's Snow Bound. 

The lover of the Lake and its bird life will miss the gulls 
but will find compensation in the presence of the wild fowl 
— the ducks and the geese — that have returned to their 
winter haunts. 

Lake Tahoe is remarkably adapted as a winter resort for 
three prime reasons: first, it is easily accessible; second, no 
place in the Sierra Nevada, excepting not even Yosemite, 
offers so many attractions; third, it is the natural and easy 
gateway in winter to the remote fastnesses of the northern 
Sierra. 

Among the attractions preeminently associated with Lake 
Tahoe in winter are boating and cruising, snow-shoeing and 
exploring, camping for those whose souls are of sterner 
stuff, hunting, mountain climbing, photography, and the en- 
joyment of winter landscape. Fishing during the winter 
months is prohibited by law. 

If one asks where to go, a bewildering group of trips and 
pleasures appears. But there come forth speedily from out 
the number a few of unsurpassed allurement. These are a 
ski trip from Tallac to Fallen Leaf Lake to see the breakers 
and the spray driven by a rising gale against the rock-bound 
shore, and, when the lake has grown quieter, a boat ride to 
Fallen Leaf Lodge beneath the frowning parapets of Mount 
Tallac. Next a ski trip up the Glen to the buried hostelry 
at Glen Alpine, where one enters by way of a dormer win- 



334 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

dow but is received to a cheerful fire and with royal hospi- 
tality. 

Then under the skillful' guidance of the keeper, a day's 
climb up the southern face of Mount Tallac for an un- 
rivalled panoramic view from its summit and a speedy but 
safe glissade back to the hostelry far, far below. 

And if the legs be not too stiff from the glissade, a climb 
over the southern wall of the Glen to Desolation Valley and 
Pyramid Peak, whence can be seen the long gorge of the 
Rubicon. The thousand lakes that dot this region present 
no barrier to one's progress, for they are frozen over and 
lie buried deep beneath the snow that falls here in an abun- 
dance hardly exceeded elsewhere in the Tahoe region. 

A close rival of these is the climb from Rubicon Park up 
the stately range in its rear to visit the mountain hemlock, 
the graceful queen of the high mountain, and to gaze across 
the chasm at the twin crags beyond. 

And peer of them all, though requiring but little exer- 
tion, is a trip to Brockway to enjoy the unrivalled view of 
the " Land's End " of the Lake and catch the colors of the 
pansies that are still in bloom in a niche of the old sea 
wall. If one possess the artist's mood, he will add thereto 
a boat ride round State Line Point in the lazy swell of the 
evening sea beneath the silent pine-clad cliffs, while the moon, 
as beautiful as any summer moon, rides overhead. Only 
the carpet of snow and the film of ice that gathers from the 
spray upon the boat keeps one alive to the reality that the 
season is winter. 

Finally a rowing trip along the western shore of the Lake 
with stops at pleasure en route. One can have weather to 
suit his taste, for the waters on this shore are safe in storm, 
and the barometer and the sky will give full warning long 
before the weather attains the danger point. The man who 
loves the breath of the storm and the glow of excitement 



LAKE TAHOE IN WINTER 335 

will loose his boat from Tallac when the clouds swing down 
the canyon and speed forth borne, as it were, on the wings 
of the waves toward the distant foot of the Lake — past the 
black water wall where the waves of Emerald Bay sweep 
into Tahoe, through the frothy waters where the wind shifts 
and whips around Rubicon Point, over the white caps of 
Meek's Bay until by skillful maneuvering the jutting cape 
is weathered and quieter water is found in McKinney Bay. 
Full time there is, with the wind astern, to reach the river's 
mouth at Tahoe City, but the voyager who loves the wood- 
land will tarry for a night in the dense fir forest of Black- 
wood, while his boat rides safely moored to the limb of a 
prostrate tree. 

Regarding the eastern side of the Lake, the bald shore and 
jutting headlands, the fewness of the landing places, and 
the sweep of the waves make cruising in these waters a mat- 
ter of supreme skill and farsightedness. Let the Viking learn 
with broad-beamed boat the mastery of the western shore 
before he turns his boat's prow to the east. 

For the man of milder tastes the motorboat will suffice 
or the mail steamer, which plies the waters of Lake Tahoe 
twice a week. 

In tobogganing, the hills and open meadows at Tahoe 
City and at Glenbrook will furnish royal sport for the 
devotee. Skating and ice-yachting must be sought in re- 
gions where the snow is less deep and the cold more intense. 

Skiing is the chief method of locomotion in winter at the 
Lake and the novice soon becomes expert in the milder 
forms of the sport. Ski trails thread the forests at Tahoe 
City and radiate from every resort. 

The open inns at Tahoe City and Glenbrook, and The 
Grove near Tallac and the resorts on Fallen Leaf Lake 
insure the traveler's comfort, while the hospitality of the 
caretakers at all of the resorts is proverbial. 



336 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

The question of when and how to go is naturally a leading 
one. During the months of November to April, two sledg- 
ing services are furnished each thrice a week — one from 
Carson City to Glenbrook, the other from Truckee to Ta- 
hoe City. (The narrow gauge railway has also established 
a semi-weekly winter schedule.) The mail boat connects 
with the incoming sledges and train on Tuesday and Sat- 
urday. The route from Carson City, which crosses the 
heights of the Carson Range, afFords a superb view of the 
Lake at sunset. The route from Truckee traverses the 
wooded canyon of the Truckee River, when scenically at 
its best. 

The traveler who approaches the Lake by way of Glen- 
brook and leaves by way of the canyon of the Truckee will 
have an experience in winter travel both unique and replete 
with beautiful landscapes. 

The journey from Truckee to the Lake can also be made 
on ski in one short day. It is an exhilarating trip, if one 
travels light. If one desires to tarry en route, he may carry 
his blankets and food on his back or haul them on a tobog- 
gan, and spend the night at the half-way station, known as 
Uncle Billy's. 

The best time to visit the Lake is after the heaviest of the 
winter snows have fallen. The period of steady and heavy 
precipitation occurs in January. After this month is past, 
there are long periods of settled weather broken only occa- 
sionally by storms, which add to rather than detract from 
one's pleasure. 

The special equipment requisite for winter trips to Tahoe 
is slight. The list includes goggles (preferably amber), 
German socks and rubbers, woolen shirt, sweater, short 
heavy coat, and mittens. For mountain climbing a pair of 
Canadian snowshoes should be added to the equipment; for 
traveling on the level, a pair of ski can be rented at Truckee 



LAKE TAHOE IN WINTER 337 

or the Lake. If one desires to camp instead of stopping at 
the resorts around the Lake, a tent and waterproof sleeping 
bag should be procured. 

The cost of transportation in winter is scarcely more than 
in summer. The sledge trip from either Truckee or Car- 
son City to the Lake is $2.50, an amount only $1.00 in ex- 
cess of the regular fare by rail. Board will cost no more 
than in summer. 

TRUCKEE 

Closely associated with Lake Tahoe as a center for win- 
ter sports is Truckee, the natural point of departure for 
the Lake. Here a winter carnival is held annually for the 
entertainment of outsiders. Among the chief sports are 
^^i-racing and jumping and tobogganing. The toboggan 
course is two thousand feet long and has a fall of one-hun- 
dred fifty feet. A device is employed for drawing the to- 
boggans back to the starting point. The hotel facilities are 
ample. Toboggans and ski can be rented for use here or 
at the Lake. Clothing and other winter outfits can be pro- 
cured. Canadian snow-shoes, however, must be obtained in 
San Francisco. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 

LAKE TAHOE AS A SUMMER RESIDENCE 

ONE of the most marked differences that the traveler 
observes between the noted lakes of Europe and 
Lake Tahoe is the comparative dearth of homes, 
summer villas, bungalows, residences, on the latter. This 
is natural. California and Nevada are new countries. They 
have scarcely had time to " find themselves " fully as yet. 
It took a thousand years to people the shores of the Euro- 
pean lakes as we find them to-day, and in due time Tahoe 
will assuredly come to its own in this regard. Indeed as 
John LeConte well wrote a number of years ago: 

The shores of Lake Tahoe afford the most beautiful sites 
for summer residences. When the states of California and 
Nevada become more populous, the delicious summer cli- 
mate of this elevated region, the exquisite beauty of the 
surrounding scenery, and the admirable facilities afforded 
for fishing and other aquatic sports, will dot the shores of 
this mountain Lake with the cottages of those who are able 
to combine health with pleasure. But it must be remem- 
bered that the prolonged severity of the winter climate, and 
especially the great depth of snowfall, render these elevated 
situations unfit for permanent residences. According to the 
observations of Dr. G. M. Bourne, during the winter of 
1873-74, the aggregate snowfall near the shores of the Lake 
amounted to more than thirty-four feet. In fact, fre- 
quently there are not more than four months in the year 
in which the ground of the margin of the Lake is entirely 
free from snow. And the vast gorges which furrow the 
sides of the surrounding amphitheater of lofty mountain 

338 



LAKE TAHOE AS A SUMMER RESIDENCE 339 

peaks are perpetually snow-clad. Hence, it is unreason- 
able to assume that many persons besides the wealthy will 
be able to enjoy the luxury of private residences here, which 
can be occupied only during the summer months of the year. 
Nevertheless, when the refinement and taste incident to the 
development of an older civilization shall have permeated 
the minds of the wealthy classes of citizens, this charming 
lake region will not only continue to be the favorite resort 
of tourists and artists, but will become, during the summer 
season, the abode of families whose abundant means enable 
them to enjoy the healthful climate, the gorgeous scenery, 
and the invigorating sports which lend an inexpressive 
charm to the sojourn on its shores. 

Amidst the magnificent nature that surrounds this re- 
gion, there should be an inspiration corresponding more or 
less with the grandeur of the aspect of the material world. 
The modifications impressed upon the moral and intellec- 
tual character of man by the physical aspects of nature, is a 
theme more properly belonging to those who have culti- 
vated the aesthetic side of humanity. The poet and the 
artist can alone appreciate, in the fullness of their humaniz- 
ing influence, the potent effects of these aesthetic inspira- 
tions. The lake districts in all Alpine countries seem to 
impress peculiar characteristics upon their inhabitants. 

When quietly floating upon the placid surface of Lake 
Tahoe, the largest of the " Gems of the Sierra " — nestled, 
as it is, amidst a huge amphitheater of mountain peaks — it 
is difficult to say whether we are more powerfully impressed 
with the genuine childlike awe and wonder inspired by the 
contemplation of the noble grandeur of nature, or with the 
calmer and more gentle sense of the beautiful produced by 
the less imposing aspects of the surrounding scenery. On 
the one hand crag and beetling cliff sweeping in rugged and 
colossal massiveness above dark waves of pine and fir, far 
into the keen and clear blue air; the huge mantle of snow, 
so cumulus-like in its brightness, thrown in many a solid 
fold over ice-sculptured crest and shoulders; the dark ca- 
thedral-like spires and splintered pinnacles, half snow, half 
stone, rising into the sky like the very pillars of heaven. 
On the other hand the waving verdure of the valleys be- 
low, the dash of waterfalls, the plenteous gush of springs, 



340 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

the laugh and dance of brook and rivulet as they hurry 
down the plains. Add to this picture the deep repose of the 
azure water, in which are mirrored snow-clad peaks, as well 
as marginal fringes of waving forests and green meadows, 
and it is difficult to decide whether the sense of grandeur 
or of beauty has obtained the mastery of the soul. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 

THE TAHOE NATIONAL FOREST 

THE Tahoe National Forest was first set apart by 
proclamation, September 17, 1906. Previous to 
this there had been the Tahoe and Yuba Forest 
Reserves which were established by proclamation under the 
acts of March 3, 1891, and June 4, 1897. The original 
Tahoe Forest Reserve consisted of six townships along the 
west side of Lake Tahoe. Part of this territory is now 
in the Tahoe and part in the El Dorado National Forest. 
Changes and additions were later made by proclamations of 
March 2, 1909, and July 28, 1910. 

Although Lake Tahoe does not lie within any National 
Forest it is almost surrounded by the Tahoe and El Dorado 
Forests. There are a few miles of shore-line on the Nevada 
side in the vicinity of Glenbrook which are not within the 
National Forest Boundary. 

The gross area of the Tahoe National Forest is 1,272,470 
acres. Of this amount, however, 692,677 acres are privately 
owned. The El Dorado National Forest has a gross area 
of 836,200 acres with 284,798 of them in private hands. 
These privately owned lands are technically spoken of as 
" alienated lands." 

The towns of Truckee, Emigrant Gap, Cisco, Donner, 
Fulda, Downieville, Sierra City, Alleghany, Forest, Granite- 
ville, Goodyear's Bar, and Last Chance, as well as Tahoe 
City, are all within the Tahoe National Forest. 

It is estimated that there are probably 350 people living 
on the Forest outside of the towns. These are principally 

341 



342 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

miners or small ranch-owners living along the rivers in the 
lower altitudes. 

Slowly but surely the people are awakening to the great 
value of the natural resources that are being conserved in 
the National Forests. In the Tahoe Reserve the preser- 
vation of the forest cover is essential to the holding of snow 
and rain-fall, preventing rapid run-off, thereby conserving 
much of what would be waste and destructive flood-water, 
until it can be used for irrigation and other beneficial pur- 
poses. 

Many streams of great power possibilities rise and flow 
through the Tahoe Forest Reserve, such as the Truckee, 
Little Truckee, Yuba and American rivers. Working in 
conjunction with the U. S. Reclamation Service the Truckee 
General Electric Company uses the water that flows out of 
Lake Tahoe down the Truckee River for the development 
of power. The Pacific Gas and Electric Company, of San 
Francisco, controls the waters of the South Yuba river, and 
its Colgate plant is on the main Yuba, though it obtains 
some of its water supply from the North Yuba. Lake 
Spaulding, one of the largest artificial lakes in the world, is 
a creation of this same company. It is situated near Emi- 
grant Gap and is used for the development of power. 

The Northern Water and Power Company controls the 
Bowman reservoir and a string of lakes on the headwaters 
of Canyon Creek, a branch of the South Yuba river. As 
yet its power possibilities are not developed. 

Through the activities of these companies electricity and 
water for irrigation are supplied to towns and country re- 
gions contiguous to their lines, and they have materially 
aided in the development of the Sacramento Valley. 

Only about five per cent, of the Reserve is barren land, 
and this is mostly situated at a high elevation above timber 
line. The tree growth is excellent, and under proper di- 



THE TAHOE NATIONAL FOREST 343 

rection reproduction could be made all that any one could de- 
sire. Fully twenty per cent., however, of the present Re- 
serve is covered with chaparral. Practically all of this 
originally was timbered. The chaparral has grown up be- 
cause nothing was done at the proper time to foster repro- 
duction over acres that had been cut. Systematic and sci- 
entific efforts are now being made to remedy this condition, 
the rangers being encouraged to study the trees, gather seeds 
from the best of their type, plant and cultivate them. Tree 
cutting is now so regular as to obtain by natural reproduc- 
tion a second crop on the logged-over areas. Where natural 
reproduction fails planting is resorted to. Thus it is hoped, 
in time, to replant all the logged-over areas now owned by 
the government, serving the double purpose of conserving the 
water-supply and providing timber for the needs of the fu- 
ture. Much of the timber-land, however, of the Tahoe re- 
gion, is patented to private owners. Little, if anything, is 
being done towards reforestation on these private tracts. 
Legal enactments, ultimately, may produce effective action 
along this needed line. 

As has elsewhere been shown the world owes a debt of 
gratitude to the Tahoe region. Had it not been for the 
timber secured so readily from the Tahoe slopes the mining 
operations of Virginia City, Gold Hill and Dayton would 
have been seriously retarded and crippled. As it was the 
Tahoe trees were transferred as mining-timbers for propping 
up the immense and continuous excavations of that vast 
series of honey-combings underground, the products of which 
revivified the gold supply of the world. 

Tahoe timber also has contributed much to the upbuilding 
of the towns and country farms on the whole upper Pacific 
Coast and interior regions of Northern California, and to- 
day much of its timber finds its way to San Francisco and 
other Pacific Coast markets. 



344 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

At Floriston, on the Truckee River, a mill is in success- 
ful operation, using Tahoe fir for the making of paper. Red 
and white fir, which are practically useless for lumber, are 
found to make excellent wrapping and tissue papers, and 
thus, from being unremunerative products of our forests, be- 
come sources of income. After planing off the bark, the 
wood is made into small chips, about a half inch square, and 
an eighth of an inch thick. These chips are then " digested " 
by a process of mixing with acids and cooking, through which 
it becomes " wood pulp." Different processes produce dif- 
ferent pulps, two of which are mixed together, allowed to 
flow out on a very fine wire screen nine feet wide, revolv- 
ing at a rate of 300 feet a minute, with a " jigging " move- 
ment from side to side. This makes all the fibers lie flat. 
They are then sent through steel rollers, the water squeezed 
out, and finally carried over and around twenty-five revolv- 
ing steam-heated cylinders which completely dry the paper 
and put the needed gloss or finish on it. 

The rainfall on the Tahoe Reserve averages about fifty 
inches annually, the most frequent rains occurring between 
October and May. Necessarily there is much snow-fall on 
the higher regions. Further down the snow disappears in 
the early spring, say March, but in the upper altitudes it 
remains until late June, with perpetual snow in the shel- 
tered portions of the topmost peaks. 

Agriculture, owing to the average high altitude, is a negli- 
gible industry in the Reserve, little more being done than to 
raise a little fruit, grain and vegetables, mainly for home 
consumption. Naturally there is a fair amount of grazing, 
almost the whole area of the Reserve being used for this 
purpose during the summer months. Many portions of 
meadow-land are used for dairy-herds, most of the hotels 
and resorts on and near Lake Tahoe having their own herds 
and meadows. Bands of beef-cattle are also pastured, to- 



THE TAHOE NATIONAL FOREST 345 

gether with large bands of sheep, the two kinds of stock often 
grazing in common, the cattle using the meadows and the 
sheep the ridges and timber-lands. In taking the trail-rides 
described in other chapters I invariably came across both 
cattle and sheep, and all the near-by meadows are occupied 
by the dairy-herds belonging to the hotels. Patented lands 
of private ownership within the bounds of the Forest are 
often also leased to cattle- and sheep-men. Last year it 
was estimated that there were 47,000 head of sheep, and 
about 6000 head of cattle on the Reserve. Under the pro- 
tection of the rangers grazing conditions are rapidly im- 
proving, the cattle- and sheep-men being held strictly to 
certain rules laid down by the Supervisor. Systematic efforts 
are made to rid the Forest, as far as possible, of predatory 
animals that kill the sheep, also of poisonous plants which 
render grazing dangerous. 

There are far less cattle on the Sierra ranges in the Tahoe 
region than there are sheep. During the summer most of 
the mountain valleys have their great sheep-bands. Many 
are brought over from Nevada, and far more from the Sac- 
ramento Valley and other regions near the Pacific. The 
feed, as a rule, is good and abundant from the time the 
snow leaves until the end of September or even later. 
Though the year 191 3 was the third dry season (compara- 
tively speaking) the region had suffered, I found a score or 
more of meadows in my rambles around Tahoe, where thou- 
sands of sheep might have had rich and abundant pasture. 

But well may John Muir dislike sheep in his beloved 
Sierras, and term them in his near-to-hatred " the locusts of 
the mountains." When the most fertile valley has been 
" fed off " by sheep, or they have " bedded down " night 
after night upon it, it takes some time before the young 
growth comes up again. 

It is the custom when the lambing season is over, and the 



346 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

lambs are strong enough to travel and old enough to ship, 
to move to some convenient point on the railway, where there 
is an abundance of feed and water on the way, and there 
ship either to Reno, Carson and Virginia City, or to some 
market on the Pacific Coast. Hence overland travelers on 
the Southern Pacific trains are often surprised to see vast 
flocks of sheep and hear the bleating of the lambs at un- 
locked for stations at the highest points of the Sierra Nevada, 
as at Soda Springs, Cisco, Emigrant Gap, Blue Canyon, or 
sidings on the wa3^ 

There is a large mining industry within the Reserve. 
Since 1849 the western part of the Forest has been most ac- 
tive, one county. Sierra, having produced since then upwards 
of $200,000,000. The present output is much smaller than 
formerly, still it is large enough to render mining an im- 
portant factor in the productive wealth of the state. In 1853 
hydraulic mining was inaugurated near Nevada City. This 
gave renewed interest to placer-mining. 

Four of the old emigrant roads cross the Tahoe and El 
Dorado Reserves. The most famous of these is the one 
across Donner Pass and through Emigrant Gap. This was 
the general course taken by the unfortunate Donner Party, 
as recorded in another chapter. 

Another road was the Heuness Pass road, on a branch of 
which was Nigger Tent, a rendezvous of robbers and cut- 
throats in the early days. Prospectors and miners were often 
robbed and murdered at this place. The Heuness Pass Road 
and the Donner Road branch in Sardine Valley, the former 
going through by Webber Lake, and the latter through the 
present site of Truckee. On the latter road, in the vicinity 
of You Bet, is a large tree which bears the name " Fremont's 
Flagpole," though it is doubtful whether it was ever used 
by Fremont for this purpose. 

The third important road is the present Placerville Road, 



THE TAHOE NATIONAL FOREST 347 

— a portion of the State Highway and the great trans-con- 
tinental Lincoln Highway, elsewhere described. 

The fourth is the Amador Grade Road, on which stood the 
tree whereupon Kit Carson carved his name. 

The Georgetown Road is an important and historic fea- 
ture of the Tahoe Region, for it connects Georgetown with 
Virginia City, and it was from the former place so many 
Tahoe pioneers came. I have already referred to the trail 
built in the early 6o's. Then when the Georgetown miners 
constructed a ditch to convey water for mining purposes from 
Loon Lake, they soon thereafter, about '72 or '73, built a 
road about forty miles long, to enable them to reach the 
Lake, which was their main reservoir. Loon, Pleasant and 
Bixby's Lakes were all dammed and located upon for the 
water company. 

When the Hunsakers built the road from McKinney's to 
their Springs in 1883 there was a stretch of only about 
seven miles from Loon Lake to the Springs to complete a 
road between Lake Tahoe and Georgetown. The matter 
was laid before the Supervisors of Placer and El Dorado 
Counties, and they jointly built the road in 1884, following 
as nearly as possible the old Georgetown trail, which was 
practically the boundary between the two counties. 

While automobiles have gone over it, it is scarcely good 
enough for that form of travel, but cattle, sheep and horses 
are driven over it constantly, campers make good use of it 
in the summer, and though it has not the activity of the 
days when it was first built, it has fully justified its exist- 
ence by the comfort and convenience it gives to the sparsely 
settled population of the region for which the waters of 
the Reserve were flumed in every direction. WTien legal 
enactment practically abolished placer mining, owing to its 
ruining the agricultural lands lower down by the carrying 
of the mud and silt upon them, the water systems were util- 



348 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

Ized for domestic and irrigation purposes, thus laying the 
foundation of the great systenns now being used for power 
purposes. 

One of the greatest excitements known in the Tahoe re- 
gion occurred when the first notice of the discovery of the 
Comstock lode in Virginia City appeared in the Nevada 
City Journal, July i, 1859. Immediately the whole country 
was aroused, fully one-third of all the male population set- 
ting forth for the mines. This was also one of the great 
urgents in the building of a railway which soon ultimated 
in the Central Pacific. 

There are several mineral springs of note on the Forest, 
chief of which are Deer Park Springs, Glen Alpine Springs 
and Brockway's. 

The most northern grove of Big Trees, Sequoia Gigantea, 
in existence, is found in the Tahoe Forest, on the Forest Hill 
Divide, near the southern boundary of Placer County, on a 
tributary of the Middle Fork of the American River. There 
are six of these trees as well as several which have fallen. 

Dotted over the Reserve are cabins of the rangers. These 
men live a most interesting, and sometimes adventurous and 
daring life. Primarily their days and nights are largely 
those of solitude, and it is interesting to throw a little light 
upon the way they spend their time. 

Necessarily their chief thought and care is that of pro- 
tecting the Forest from fire. To accomplish this end fire- 
brakes — wide passages, trails, or roads — are cut through 
the trees and brush, so that it is possible to halt a fire when 
it reaches one of the constant patrols and watches that 
are maintained. Lookout stations are placed on elevated 
points. In the fall of 191 1 a Lookout Tower was erected 
on Banner Mountain, four miles southeast of Nevada City, 
in which a watchman with a revolving telescope is on duty 
day and night. This mountain is at 3900 feet elevation and 




nlTUyr 1)1- LAKE TAHOK, TRUCKI-K. K[\i;u 




FLOCK OF SIICEP III IM, DKfX I X IKo.M IHI-: "lAIIdr. \ V- 
IIOA \L luRLST 




ISLAND PARK, LAKE TAHOE 



THE TAHOE NATIONAL FOREST 349 

affords an unobstructed view of about one-third of the whole 
area of the Tahoe Forest. 

By a system of maps, sights and signals the location of 
fires can be determined with reasonable accuracy, and the 
telephone enables warnings to be sent to all concerned. 

Telephone lines bisect the Reserve in several directions, and 
fire- fighting appliances are cached in accessible places ready 
for immediate use. When a Forest officer is notified of the 
approximate location of a fire he goes immediately with what 
help he thinks he needs. If he finds that the fire is larger 
than he can handle with the available force at his command, 
he notifies the Supervisor, who secures men from the most 
practical point and dispatches them to the fire as soon as 
possible, by automobile or train. 

To give further fire protection a gasoline launch — the 
Ranger — twenty-six feet long and with a carrying capac- 
ity of fifteen men, and a speed of about nine miles an hour, 
was placed on Lake Tahoe in 1910, at the Kent Ranger Sta- 
tion, located a mile below the Tavern. The guard who is 
in charge of this boat is on the Lake about eight hours each 
day, going up the Lake in the morning towards Tallac and 
taking the northern end of the Lake in the afternoon. The 
launch is put in service each year about the 15th of June 
and kept there until the fire-danger is over in the fall. Nor- 
mal years this is about the 15th of September, but in 19 13 
the launch remained and the patrolman was on duty much 
later. 

If the guard sights a fire anywhere within the watershed 
of Lake Tahoe, he immediately obtains men at the nearest 
point and proceeds to the fire. Since the launch has been 
on the Lake there have been no serious fires. Every fire has 
been caught in its infancy and put out before any damage 
has been done. There has been only one fire of any size on 
the Lake since the launch was installed. This burned about 



350 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

20 acres just east of Brockway. Numerous small fires of an 
acre or less have been put out each year. 

The Forest Guard in charge of the launch for the years 
1912-13 was Mark W. Edmonds. Mr. Edmonds is the son 
of Dr. H. W. Edmonds, who is now in the Arctic doing sci- 
entific work for the Carnegie Institute. 

The force of men at work on the Reserve varies in num- 
ber according to the season of the year. When the fire- 
season is on many more men are on duty than in the winter- 
season. The year-long force consists of the Supervisor, 
Deputy Supervisor, Forest Clerk, Stenographer, thirteen 
Rangers and two Forest Examiners who are Forest School 
men engaged chiefly on timber sale and investigative work. 
The force in 19 13 during the season of greatest danger was 
fifty-six. Some of the temporary employees are engaged for 
six months, some for three months and others for shorter 
periods. The longer termed men are generally Assistant 
Rangers who cannot be employed the year around, but who 
are considered first for permanent jobs that occur on the 
statutory roll on account of their Civil Service standing. 

Forest fires are caused in a variety of ways, but chiefly 
through inexcusable carelessness. Now and then lightning 
produces fire, but the throwing down of lighted matches by 
smokers, the butt ends of cigars and cigarettes that are still 
alight, leaving camp-fires unextinguished, or building them 
too large, allowing fires for burning waste land or brush to 
get from under control — these are the chief sources of for- 
est fires. Accordingly the local and federal authorities con- 
stantly keep posted on Forest Reserves notices calling atten- 
tion to the dangers and urging care upon all who use the 
forests for any purpose whatever. 

In addition to fire-fighting the rangers are required to 
give constant oversight to the sheep- and cattle-ranges, and 
to the animals that are brought there, so that the feed is not 



THE TAHOE NATIONAL FOREST 351 

eaten out, or too many head pastured upon a given area. 
Seeds of forest trees must be gathered at the proper season 
and experiments in reforestation conducted, besides a certain 
amount of actual planting-out performed. The habits of 
seed-eating birds and animals are studied, especially in rela- 
tion to reforestation. A very small number of squirrels or 
mice can get away with a vast number of seeds in a season. 
Methods of protecting the seeds without destroying too many 
of the wild animals must be devised. 

Available areas of timber are sought for and offered for 
sale. Certain men are detailed to measure the trees and 
determine the value of the timber ; they must mark the trees 
included in the sale, leaving out enough seed-trees for satis- 
factory reproduction. If it be a second sale over a cut-over 
area the problems are somewhat altered. Will the trees that 
are left suffer from wind-fall? If partially suppressed trees 
are left can they be depended upon to recover and make a 
good growth? 

Then, too, the questions of natural versus artificial refor- 
estation have to be scientifically studied and exhaustive tests 
made. Shall seeds be sown, or shall young trees be planted ? 
Which trees are best suited for certain localities, and which 
are the more profitable when grown? 

To many people it is not known that dwellers in or near 
National Forests can obtain free of charge timber for their 
domestic needs. The rangers determine where this " free 
area " shall be located, exactly what trees, whether dead or 
alive, shall be taken, and endeavor to lay down rules that 
shall give equal chances for all comers. 

As one of the mottos of the Forest Service is " the great- 
est good to the greatest number," small sales are encouraged 
to those who wish to make their own lumber or shakes. 
Settlers in remote localities are often helped in this manner. 

Cases of trespass have to be guarded against, and now and 



352 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

again suits have had to be brought against loggers for en- 
croaching upon the territory of the Reserve, and removing 
timber which they had not purchased. 

In 191 1 every District Ranger v^^as appointed a Deputy 
Fish and Game Commissioner and thus was duly authorized 
to enforce the law in regard to fish and game. 

Another subject of interest and importance to the ranger 
is the study of insect infestation. Many trees are killed an- 
nually by certain insects, and these must be discovered and 
their devastation prevented. 

Then, too, there are diseases and parasites that affect the 
trees, and this branch of study demands constant attention. 

Hence it will be seen that the office of the Forest Ranger 
is by no means a sinecure. He works hard and he works 
long and alone and our kindly thoughts should go out to 
him in his solitary patrols and vigils. 

The present Supervisor of the Tahoe Forest is Richard 
L. P. Bigelow, to whose kindness I am indebted for much 
of the information contained in this chapter. 



CHAPTER XL 

PUBLIC USE OF THE WATERS OF LAKE TAHOE 

THERE has always been considerable discussion and 
dissension among conflicting interests as to the use 
of the waters of Lake Tahoe for private or semi- 
public uses, and, finally, in 1903 the U. S. Reclamation Serv- 
ice entered into the field. At my request Mr. D. W. Cole, 
engineer-in-charge of the Truckee-Carson project, kindly 
furnishes the following data: 

Along in the 6o's of the last century the region around 
the Lake acquired great importance on account of the fine 
growth of timber on the surrounding mountain slopes. It 
is said that a great many million feet of lumber were har- 
vested in this region. For many years the entire lumber 
supply for the old Comstock mines was derived from this 
source. Virginia City, Carson City and the neighboring 
mining communities were built from the timber of the Lake 
Tahoe basin, and it might be said that the foundation of 
the fortunes of the California gold kings, who developed 
the Comstock mines, was made of the pine wood which 
grew upon the shores of Lake Tahoe, without which that 
wonderful output of $700,000,000 of gold from the Com- 
stock lode would have been impossible. 

Supplementing the timber supply the water from Mar- 
lette Lake, a tributary to Lake Tahoe, was diverted by a 
remarkable engineering achievement for supplying Virginia 
City and the deep mines. Marlette Lake lies several hun- 
dred feet above Lake Tahoe on the Nevada side, and half 
a century ago its waters were taken through flume, tunnel 
and pipe line across the dividing mountain range and out 
into the desert valley of the Carson River for sustaining 

353 



354 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

gold seekers of Virginia City. This work of the pioneer 
engineers was scarcely less bold in its conception and won- 
derful in its execution than the famous Sutro tunnel which 
drains the underground waters from the Comstock mines. 

About 1870 the first use of Lake Tahoe for other than 
navigation purposes was made by building a log crib dam 
at the outlet for the purpose of storing flood-waters to be 
used in log-driving in the Truckee River below the Lake. 

The outlet of the Lake was in a land grant section be- 
longing to the Central Pacific Railway Company, and one 
of the earlier lumber companies procured a charter from the 
State of California and proceeded to build a dam and op- 
erate it for log-driving purposes. 

In the course of time the development of water-power in 
the Truckee River below the Lake became of considerable 
importance, both for saw-mill and other manufacturing pur- 
poses. The dam at the Lake's outlet was passed from the 
possession of the Donner Boom & Lumber Company into 
the hands of other interests who were making a larger use 
of power. 

Eventually, in the last decade of the century, the water- 
power plants were converted into hydro-electric plants and 
began to furnish electric current for power and lighting in 
the city of Reno and as far south as Virginia City. 

About the year 1908 the ownership of the several hydro- 
electric plants was passed to the Truckee River General 
Electric Company, under the management of the Stone & 
Webster Engineering Corporation, of Boston, one of the 
very large public utilities corporations of the country. 

This company has enlarged and improved the plants and 
is now furnishing a large amount of electric current for all 
purposes in Reno, Virginia City, Carson City, Yerington, 
Thompson, Minden and various other towns and mining 
camps in the State of Nevada, forming a group of com- 
munities which are wholly dependent upon this power for 
their various purposes. 

In 1903 the United States Reclamation Service filed an 
appropriation of all surplus waters which had theretofore 
gone to waste from Lake Tahpe, and under this appropria- 
tion, with others covering waters in the Carson River, the 



PUBLIC USE OF TAHOE WATERS 355 

Truckee-Carson Reclamation Project in Nevada was com- 
menced. 

By this irrigation project it is proposed to cover an area 
of about 206,000 acres, of which 35,000 acres are now be- 
ing irrigated and about 500 families have their homes upon 
productive lands, which were formerly a part of the great 
desert which was traversed with much suffering by the 
pioneer gold seekers. 

In 1908 the Reclamation Service entered into negotiations 
for the purchase of the real estate and dam controlling the 
outlet of Lake Tahoe, but before the purchase was con- 
cluded the reorganized power company secured possession 
of the property. A condemnation suit was then brought 
by the United States to acquire possession and control of 
the Lake's outlet. A contract was entered into with the 
power company for the joint building of a new dam with 
gates for controlling the outlet from the Lake. This dam 
was partly built in 1909, replacing a portion of the old tim- 
ber structure. Owing to various complications this new 
cement dam has stood in an uncomplete condition until the 
fall of 191 3 when arrangements were made for its comple- 
tion, and now the structure is entirely done and is well 
adapted to control the outlet from the Lake so as to hold 
the waters at satisfactory levels according to the various 
uses for which the water is required. 

There have been confusing statements made in the pub- 
lic press and otherwise concerning the intentions and actions 
of the Reclamation Service and of the power company. 
The gist of the whole matter is that both the Reclamation 
Service and the power company have proposed by means of 
the new dam to regulate the Lake within a range of six 
feet vertically, this being well within the limits of fluctua- 
tions which have occurred during the past 40 years when 
the Lake has been partially controlled by means of the old 
logging dam, and during which period the navigation and 
resort interests have taken the place of the lumber business 
in the commercial aspects of the Lake. 

The records show that during these 40 years the Lake 
has fluctuated to the extent of a little more than eight feet 
between low and high water marks. 



356 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

The landowners around the Lake are principally inter- 
ested in its esthetic qualities as a basis for the commercial in- 
terests involved in the tourist traffic and summer resort 
business. These interests vv^ould naturally desire the Lake 
to be held at a fixed level. 

Likewise the navigation interests which operate a large 
number of boats of various sizes would be best pleased with 
a stationary level of the Lake, in order that their wharves 
and boat routes might be built and maintained for a single 
level of the water. 

On the other hand the natural conditions and the use of 
water for power and irrigation, which are among the older 
vested rights, require the Lake to be used to some extent as 
a storage reservoir, which implies a fluctuating level. 

The whole problem is to reconcile these various interests 
so as to derive the greatest possible economic advantages 
while maintaining the great beauties of the Lake for those 
whose interests lie mainly in that direction. 

There has been suspicion on the part of some of the ri- 
parian owners that either the power company or the Gov- 
ernment, or both, have been entertaining ulterior motives 
with the purpose of drawing down the Lake to unprece- 
dented levels and of extracting from the Lake an amount of 
water greater than the average annual inflow. It may be 
stated once for all that there has never been such a purpose 
and that all calculations of the available water in the Lake 
have been based upon a long record of seasonable fluctuations 
which prove that the average annual outflow from the Lake 
is about 300,000 acre feet. 

All plans have contemplated the use of only this average 
amount of water annually. 

The Lake has an area of 193 square miles. The eleva- 
tion of its high-water mark has been at 6231.3, whereas its 
low-water mark is recorded at elevation 6223.1 above sea 
level. 

Should the Government be successful in acquiring the 
outlet property from the power company by the condemna- 
tion suit now in court, it is proposed to operate the gates 
of the dam at all times so as to maintain the Lake at the 
highest level consistent with the maintenance of a desirable 
shore-line and the conservation of water for the public utili- 



PUBLIC USE OF TAHOE WATERS 357 

ties. It is proposed never to draw the Lake below the 
previous low-water mark or to allow it to rise as high as 
the previous high-water mark, at which low and high limits 
damage in some degree was done to one or another's inter- 
ests at the Lake. 

The regulation proposed by the Government provides for 
recognition and protection of all rights in and to the waters 
and shores of Lake Tahoe, including the rights of the gen- 
eral public and of the lovers of natural beauty everywhere, 
and it is believed that the charms, as well as the utilities, of 
this paragon of lakes can more safely be entrusted to a per- 
manent government agency than to any single private in- 
terest. 

A few additions to Mr. Cole's lucid statement will help 
the general reader to a fuller comprehension of the difficulty 
as between the States of Nevada and California. It will be 
recalled that Lake Tahoe has an area of about 193 square 
miles, of which 78 square miles are in the counties of Washoe, 
Ormsby and Douglas, Nevada, the remaining 115 square 
miles being in Placer and El Dorado Counties, California. 

Because of this fact, that nearly two-thirds of the super- 
ficial area of the Lake is in California, the people of Cali- 
fornia claim that they have the natural and inherent right to 
control, even to determining of its disposal at least nearly 
two-thirds of the water of the Lake. 

The situation, however, is further complicated by the fact 
that the only outlet to the Lake is in California near Tahoe 
City, in Placer County, into the Truckee River, which 
meanders for some miles in a northeasterly course until it 
leaves California, enters Nevada, passes through the important 
city of Reno, and finally empties into Pyramid Lake, which 
practically has no outlet. 

In response to the claim of California, the people of Ne- 
vada, in which it appears they are backed up by the U. S. 
Reclamation Service, contend that Nature has already deter- 
mined whither the overflow waters of Lake Tahoe shall go. 



358 THE LAKE OF THE SKY — LAKE TAHOE 

That, while they do not wish in the slightest to restrict the 
proper use of the waters of the Truckee River by the dwellers 
upon that river, they insist that no one else is entitled to 
their use, and that every drop of superfluous water, legally 
and morally, belongs to them, to be used as they deem proper. 
In accordance with this conception of their rights the Ne- 
vada legislature passed the following act, which was approved, 
March 6, 1913: 

That for the purpose of aiding the Truckee-Carson re- 
clamation project now being carried out by the Reclamation 
Service of the United States of America, under the Act of 
Congress approved June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. p. 384), known 
as the Reclamation Act, and acts amendatory thereof or 
supplementary thereto, consent is hereby given to the use 
by the United States of America of Lake Tahoe, situated 
partly in the State of California and partly in the State of 
Nevada, and the waters, bed, shores and capability of use 
for reservoir purposes thereof, in such manner and to such 
extent as the United States of America through its lawful 
agencies shall think proper for such purpose, and as fully as 
the State of Nevada could use the same, provided, how- 
ever, that the consent hereby given is without prejudice to 
any existing rights that persons or corporations may have 
in Lake Tahoe or the Truckee River. 

At the present time (winter of 19 14-15) the matter is in 
the courts awaiting adjudication, which it is to be hoped, while 
being satisfactory to all parties to the suit, will fully conserve 
for the scenic enjoyment of the world all the charms for which 
Tahoe has been so long and so justly famous. 



APPENDIX 
CHAPTER A 

MARK TWAIN AT LAKE TAHOE 

EARLY in the 'sixties the immortal Mark made his 
mark at Lake Tahoe. In his Roughing It, he de- 
votes Chapters XXII and XXIII to the subject. 
With the kind consent of his publishers, Harper Bros, of 
New York, the following extracts are presented. 

Later, when in Italy, he described Lake Como and com- 
pared it with Tahoe in Innocents Abroad, and while his 
prejudices against the Indians led him to belittle the Indian 
name — Tahoe — and in so doing to make several errors of 
statement, the descriptions are excellent and the interested 
reader is referred to them as being well worthy his attention. 

Chapter XXII, Roughing It. — We had heard a world 
of talk about the marvelous beauty of Lake Tahoe, and finally 
curiosity drove us thither to see it. Three or four members 
of the Brigade ^ had been there and located some timber lands 
on its shores and stored up a quantity of provisions in their 
camp. We strapped a couple of blankets on our shoulders 

1 The " Brigade " to which the distinguished humorist here refers 
was a company of fourteen camp-followers of the Governor of 
Nevada, who boarded at the same house as Mark, that of Mrs. 
O'Flannigan. They had joined the Governor's retinue " by their 
own election at New York and San Francisco, and came along, feel- 
ing that in the scuffle for little territorial crumbs and offices they could 
not make their condition more precarious than it was, and might 
reasonably expect to make it better. They were popularly known 
as the ' Irish Brigade,' though there were only four or five Irishmen 
among them." 

359 



36o APPENDIX 

and took an ax apiece and started — for we intended to take 
up a wood ranch or so ourselves and become wealthy. We 
were on foot. The reader will find it advantageous to go on 
horseback. We were told that the distance was eleven miles. 
We tramped a long time on level ground, and then toiled 
laboriously up a mountain about a thousand miles high and 
looked over. No lake there. We descended on the other 
side, crossed the valley and toiled up another mountain three 
or four thousand miles high, apparently, and looked over 
again. No lake yet. We sat down tired and perspiring, 
and hired a couple of Chinamen to curse those people who 
had beguiled us. Thus refreshed, we presently resumed the 
march with renewed vigor and determination. We plodded 
on, two or three hours longer, and at last the Lake burst 
upon us — a noble sheet of blue water lifted six thousand 
three hundred feet above the level of the sea, and walled in 
by a rim of snowclad mountain peaks that towered aloft full 
three thousand feet higher still! It was a vast oval, and 
one would have to use up eighty or a hundred good miles 
in traveling around it. As it lay there with the shadows 
of the mountains brilliantly photographed upon its still sur- 
face I thought it must surely be the fairest picture the 
whole earth affords. 

. . . After supper as the darkness closed down and the 
stars came out and spangled the great mirror with jewels, 
we smoked meditatively in the solemn hush and forgot our 
troubles and our pains. In due time we spread our blankets 
in the warm sand between two large bowlders and soon fell 
asleep. . . . The wind rose just as we were losing con- 
sciousness, and we were lulled to sleep by the beating of the 
surf upon the shore. 

It is always very cold on that Lake shore in the night, 
but we had plenty of blankets and were warm enough. We 
never moved a muscle all night, but waked at early dawn 
in the original positions, and got up at once thoroughly re- 
freshed, free from soreness, and brim full of friskiness. 
There is no end of wholesome medicine in such an experi- 
ence. That morning we could have whipped ten such 
people as we were the day before — sick ones at any rate. 
But the world is slow, and people will go to " water cures " 
and " movement cures " and to foreign lands for health. 



MARK TWAIN AT LAKE TAHOE 361 

Three months of camp life on Lake Tahoe would restore 
an Egyptian mummy to his pristine vigor, and give him an 
appetite like an alligator. I do not mean the oldest and 
driest mummies, of course, but the fresher ones. The air 
up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and 
delicious. And why shouldn't it be? — It is the same the 
angels breathe. I think that hardly any amount of fatigue 
can be gathered together that a man cannot sleep off in one 
night on the sand by its side. Not under a roof, but under 
the sky ; it seldom or never rains there in the summer time. 

. . . Next morning while smoking the pipe of peace 
after breakfast we watched the sentinel peaks put on the glory 
of the sun, and followed the conquering light as it swept down 
among the shadows, and set the captive crags and forests 
free. We watched the tinted pictures grow and brighten 
upon the water till every little detail of forest, precipice, 
and pinnacle was wrought in and finished, and the miracle 
of the enchanter complete. Then to " business." 

That is, drifting around in the boat. We were on the 
north shore. There, the rocks on the bottom are some- 
times gray, sometimes white. This gives the marvelous 
transparency of the water a fuller advantage than it has 
elsewhere on the Lake. We usually pushed out a hundred 
yards or so from the shore, and then lay down on the 
thwarts in the sun, and let the boat drift by the hour whither 
it would. We seldom talked. It Interrupted the Sabbath 
stillness, and marred the dreams the luxurious rest and in- 
dolence brought. The shore all along was Indented with 
deep, curved bays and coves, bordered by narrow sand- 
beaches; and where the sand ended, the steep mountain-sides 
rose right up aloft into space — rose up like a vast wall a 
little out of the perpendicular, and thickly wooded with tall 
pines. 

So singularly clear was the water, that where it was 
only twenty or thirty feet deep the bottom was so perfectly 
distinct that the boat seemed floating In the air! Yes, 
where it was even eighty feet deep. Every little pebble was 
distinct, every speckled trout, every hand's-breadth of sand. 
Often, as we lay on our faces, a granite bowlder, as large 
as a village church, would start out of the bottom appar- 
ently, and seem climbing up rapidly to the surface, till pres- 



362 APPENDIX 

ently it threatened to touch our faces, and we could not re- 
sist the impulse to seize an oar and avert the danger. But 
the boat would float on, and the bowlder descend again, 
and then we could see that when we had been exactly above 
it, it must have been twenty or thirty feet below the surface. 
Down through the transparency of these great depths, the 
water was not merely transparent, but dazzlingly, brilliantly 
so. All objects seen through it had a bright, strong vivid- 
ness, not only of outline, but of every minute detail, which 
they would not have had when seen simply through the 
same depth of atmosphere. So empty and airy did all 
spaces seem below us, and so strong was the sense of float- 
ing high aloft in mid-nothingness, that we called these boat- 
excursions " balloon-voyages." 

We fished a good deal, but we did not average one 
fish a week. We could see trout by the thousand winging 
about in the emptiness under us, or sleeping in shoals on the 
bottom, but they would not bite — ^they could see the line 
too plainly, perhaps. We frequently selected the trout we 
wanted, and rested the bait patiently and persistently on the 
end of his nose at a depth of eighty feet, but he would only 
shake it off with an annoyed manner, and shift his position.^ 

1 These extracts are made from Mark Twain's copyrighted works 
by especial arrangement with his publishers, Harper & Bros., New 
York. 



CHAPTER B 

MARK TWAIN AND THE FOREST RANGERS 

IN a quarterly magazine published solely for the Rangers 
of the Tahoe Reserve, one of the Rangers thus 
" newspaperizes " Mark's experiences in two different 
sketches, one as it was in i86i " before " the establishment 
of the Reserve, and the other as it would be " now." 

AS IT WAS IN 1 86 1 

Extract from January Harper s. — Mark Twain heard 
that the timber around Lake Bigler (Tahoe) promised vast 
vi^ealth which could be had for the asking. He decided to 
locate a timber claim on its shores. He went to the Lake 
with a young Ohio lad, staked out a timber claim, and made 
a semblance of fencing it and of building a habitation, to 
comply with the law. They did not sleep in the house, of 
which Mark Twain says: " It never occurred to us for one 
thing, and besides, it was built to hold the ground, and that 
was enough. We did not wish to strain it." 

They lived by their camp-fire on the borders of the 
Lake and one day — it was just at nightfall — it got away 
from them, fired the Forest, and destroyed their fence and 
habitation. His picture of the superb night spectacle — 
the mighty mountain conflagration — is splendidly vivid. 

" The level ranks of flame were relieved at intervals by 
the standard-bearers, as we called the tall dead trees, 
wrapped in fire, and waving their blazing banners a hun- 
dred feet in the air. Then we could turn from the scene 
to the Lake and see every branch and leaf, and cataract of 
flame upon its banks perfectly reflected, as in a gleaming, 
fiery mirror. The mighty roaring of the conflagration, to- 
gether with our solitary and somewhat unsafe position (toi 

363 



364 APPENDIX 

there was no one within six miles of us), rendered the scene 
very impressive." 

AS IT WOULD BE NOW 

Press Dispatch, — August 15, 19 12. 

MARK TWAIN FIRES FOREST! ! ! 



NOTED HUMORIST CHARGED BY FOREST OFFICERS WITH 
CRIMINAL CARELESSNESS 



Mark Twain and a friend from Ohio, who have been 
camping on Lake Tahoe, are responsible for a Forest fire 
which burned over about 200 acres before it was checked 
by Forest officers. The fire was sighted at 6 o'clock p. m. 
by one of the cooperative patrolmen of the Crown Columbia 
Paper Company, who at once telephoned to the tender of 
the Launch * Ranger ' for help. Within an hour the launch 
was on the scene with a dozen men picked up at Tahoe City, 
and by 10 o'clock the fire was practically under control. 

Twain and his friend were found spell-bound by the 
Rangers, at the impressiveness of the fire. After fighting it 
for several hours, however, its grandeur palled upon them, 
and at the present time they are considerably exercised in- 
asmuch as it was ascertained that the fire was a result of 
their carelessness in leaving a camp-fire to burn unattended. 
It is extremely likely that the well-known humorist will find 
the penalty attendant to his carelessness, no " joking " mat- 
ter. 

To which I take the liberty of adding the following: 

SUBSEQUENT PROCEEDINGS 

From the Nevada City Bulletin, Sept. 6, 19 12. 

Samuel L. Clemens (popularly known as Mark Twain), 
together with Silas Snozzlebottom, of Columbus, Ohio, was 
to-day arraigned before Justice Brown, of the Superior 
Court, charged with having caused a destructive fire by 
leaving his campfire unattended. The eminent humorist 



MARK TWAIN AND THE RANGERS 365 

and author was evidently unaware of the seriousness of his 
offense for he positively refused to engage an attorney to 
defend him. When called upon to plead he began to ex- 
plain that while he confessed to lighting the fire, and leaving 
it unattended, he wished the Judge to realize that it was the 
act of God in sending the wind that spread the flames that 
caused the destructive fire which ensued. The Judge agreed 
with him, and then grimly said it was a similar act of God 
which impelled him to levy a fine of $500.00 and one month 
in jail for leaving his campfire subject to the influence of the 
wind. The humorist began to smile " on the left," and ex- 
pressed an earnest desire to argue the matter out with the 
Judge, but with a curt " Next Case! " Mark was dismissed 
in charge of an officer and retired " smiling a sickly smile," 
and though he did not " curl up on the floor," it is evident 
that the subsequent proceedings interested him no more. 



CHAPTER C 

THOMAS STARR KING AT LAKE TAHOE 

IN 1863 Thomas Starr King, perhaps the most noted 
and broadly honored divine ever known on the Pacific 
Coast, visited Lake Tahoe, and on his return to San 
Francisco preached a sermon, entitled : " Living Water from 
Lake Tahoe." Its descriptions are so felicitous that I am 
gratified to be able to quote them from Dr. King's volume 
of Sermons Christianity and Humanity, with the kind per- 
mission of the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Company, Bos- 
ton, Mass. 

LIVING WATER FROM LAKE TAHOE 

When one is climbing from the west, by the smooth and 
excellent road, the last slope of the Sierra ridge, he expects, 
from the summit of the pass, which is more than seven 
thousand feet above the sea, higher than the famous pass of 
the Splugen, or the little St. Bernard, to look off and down 
upon an immense expanse. He expects, or, if he had not 
learned beforehand, he would anticipate with eagerness, that 
he should be able to see mountain summits beneath him, 
and beyond these, valleys and ridges alternating till the hills 
subside into the eastern plains. How different the facts 
that await the eye from the western summit, and what a sur- 
prise ! We find, on gaining what seems to be the ridge, that 
the Sierra range for more than a hundred miles has a double 
line of jagged pinnacles, twelve or fifteen miles apart, with 
a trench or trough between, along a portion of the way, that 
is nearly fifteen hundred feet deep if we measure from the 
pass which the stages traverse, which is nearly three thousand 
feet deep if the plummet is dropped from the highest points 
of the snowy spires. 

366 



THOMAS STARR KING AT LAKE TAHOE 367 

Down into this trench we look, and opposite upon the 
eastern wall and crests, as we ride out to the eastern edge 
of the western summit. In a stretch of forty miles the 
chasm of it bursts into view at once, half of which is a plain 
sprinkled with groves of pine, and the other half an ex- 
panse of level blue that mocks the azure into which its 
guardian towers soar. This is Lake Tahoe, an Indian name 
which signifies " High Water." We descend steadily by 
the winding mountain-road, more than three miles to the 
plain, by which we drive to the shore of the Lake; but it is 
truly Tahoe, " High Water." For we stand more than a 
mile, I believe more than six thousand feet above the sea, 
when we have gone down from the pass to its sparkling 
beach. It has about the same altitude as the Lake of Mount 
Cenis (6280 feet) in Switzerland, and there is only one 
sheet of water in Europe that can claim a greater elevation 
(Lake Po de Vanasque, 7271 feet). There are several, 
however, that surpass it in the great mountain-chains of the 
Andes and of Hindustan. The Andes support a lake at 12,- 
000 feet above the sea, and one of the slopes of the Himalaya, 
in Thibet, encloses and upholds a cup of crystal water 15,600 
feet above the level of the Indian Ocean, covering an area, 
too, of 250 square miles. I had supposed, however, that 
within the immense limits of the American Republic, or 
north of us on the continent, there is no sheet of water that 
competes with Tahoe in altitude and interest. But in 
Mariposa County of our State there are two lakes, both 
small, — one 8300 feet, and the other 1 1,000 feet, — on the 
Sierra above the line of the sea. 

To a wearied frame and tired mind what refreshment 
there is in the neighborhood of this lake! The air is singu- 
larly searching and strengthening. The noble pines, not ob- 
structed by underbrush, enrich the slightest breeze with 
aroma and music. Grand peaks rise around, on which the 
eye can admire the sternness of everlasting crags and the 
equal permanence of delicate and feathery snow. Then 
there is the sense of seclusion from the haunts and cares of 
men, of being upheld on the immense billow of the Sierra, 
at an elevation near the line of perpetual snow, yet finding 
the air genial, and the loneliness clothed with the charm of 
feeling the sense of the mystery of the mountain heights, 



368 APPENDIX 

part of a chain that link the two polar seas, and of the mys- 
tery of the water poured into the granite bowl, whose rim 
is chased with the splendor of perpetual frost, and whose 
bounty, flowing into the Truckee stream, finds no outlet 
into the ocean, but sinks again into the land. 

Everything is charming in the surroundings of the moun- 
tain Lake; but as soon as one walks to the beach of it, and 
surveys its expanse, it is the color, or rather the colors, 
spread out before the eye, which holds it with greatest fas- 
cination. I was able to stay eight days in all, amidst that 
calm and cheer, yet the hues of the water seemed to become 
more surprising with each hour. The Lake, according to 
recent measurement, is about twenty-one miles in length, by 
twelve or thirteen in breadth. There is no island visible 
to break its sweep, which seems to be much larger than the 
figures indicate. And the whole of the vast surface, the 
boundaries of which are taken in easily at once by the range 
of the eye, is a mass of pure splendor. When the day is 
calm, there is a ring of the Lake, extending more than a 
mile from shore, which is brilliantly green. Within this 
ring the vast center of the expanse is of a deep, yet soft and 
singularly tinted blue. Hues cannot be more sharply con- 
trasted than are these permanent colors. They do not 
shade into each other ; they lie as clearly defined as the course 
of glowing gems in the wall of the New Jerusalem. It is 
precisely as if we were looking upon an immense floor of 
lapis lazuli set within a ring of flaming emerald. 

The cause of this contrast is the sudden change in the 
depth of the water at a certain distance from shore. For a 
mile or so the basin shelves gradually, and then suddenly 
plunges off into unknown depths. The center of the Lake 
must be a tremendous pit. A very short distance from 
where the water is green and so transparent that the clean 
stones can be seen on the bottom a hundred feet below, the 
blue water has been found to be fourteen hundred feet deep ; 
and in other portions soundings cannot be obtained with a 
greater extent of line. 

What a savage chasm the lake-bed must be! Empty the 
water from it and it is pure and unrelieved desolation. And 
the sovereign loveliness of the water that fills it is its color. 
The very savageness of the rent and fissure is made the con- 



THOMAS STARR KING AT LAKE TAHOE 369 

dition of the purest charm. The Lake does not feed a per- 
manent river. We cannot trace any issue of it to the ocean. 
It is not, that we know, a well-spring to supply any large 
district with water for ordinary use. It seems to exist for 
beauty. And its peculiar beauty has its root in the peculiar 
harshness and wildness of the deeps it hides. 

Brethren, this question of color in nature, broadly studied, 
leads us quickly to contemplate and adore the love of God. 
If God were the Almighty chiefly, — if he desired to impress 
us most with his omnipotence and infinitude, and make us 
bow with dread before him, how easily the world could 
have been made more somber, how easily our senses could 
have been created to receive impressions of the bleak vast- 
ness of space, how easily the mountains might have been 
made to breathe terror from their clifiEs and walls, how easily 
the general effect of extended landscapes might have been 
monotonous and gloomy! If religion is, as it has so often 
been conceived to be, hostile to the natural good and joy 
which the heart seeks instinctively, — if sadness, if melan- 
choly, be the soul of its inspiration, and misery for myriads 
the burden of its prophecy, — I do not believe that the vast 
deeps of space above us would have been tinted with tender 
azure, hiding their awfulness; I do not believe that storms 
would break away into rainbows, and that the clouds of sun- 
set would display the whole gamut of sensuous splendor ; I 
do not believe that the ocean would wear such joy for the 
eye over its awful abysses; I do not believe that the moun- 
tains would crown the complete, the general loveliness of 
the globe. 

The eloquent preacher then continues to draw other les- 
sons from the Lake, but, unfortunately, our space is too lim- 
ited to allow quotation in full. The following, however, 
are short excerpts which suggest the richness of the fuller 
expression : 

The color of the Lake is a word from this natural Gospel. 
It covers the chasms and wounds of the earth with splendor. 
It is what the name of the lovely New Hampshire lake, 
Winnei^esaukee indicates, " The Smile of the Great Spirit." 

And *hls color is connected with purity. The green ring 



370 APPENDIX 

of the Lake is so brilliant, the blue enclosed by it is so deep 
and tender, because there is no foulness in the water. The 
edge of the waves along all the beach is clean. The gran- 
ite sand, too, often dotted with smooth-washed jaspers and 
garnets and opaline quartz, is especially bright and spotless. 
In fact, the Lake seems to be conscious, and to have an in- 
stinct against contamination. Several streams pour their 
burden from the mountains into it; but the impurities which 
they bring down seem to be thrown back from the lip of 
the larger bowl, and form bars of sediment just before they 
can reach its sacred hem. Dip from its white-edged ripples, 
or from its calm heart, or from the foam that breaks over its 
blue when the wind rouses it to frolic, and you dip what is 
fit for a baptismal font, — you dip purity itself. 

The purity of nature is the expression of joy, and it is a 
revelation to us that the Creator's holiness is not repellent 
and severe. God tries to win you by his Spirit, which 
clothes the world with beauty, to trust him, to give up your 
evil that you may find deeper communion with him, and to 
recognize the charm of goodness which alone is harmony 
with the cheer and the purity of the outward world. 

I must speak of another lesson, connected with religion, 
that was suggested to me on the borders of Lake Tahoe. 
It is bordered by groves of noble pines. Two of the days 
that I was permitted to enjoy there were Sundays. On 
one of them I passed several hours of the afternoon in listen- 
ing, alone, to the murmur of the pines, while the waves were 
gently beating the shore with their restlessness. If the 
beauty and purity of the Lake were in harmony with the 
deepest religion of the Bible, certainly the voice of the pines 
was also in chord with it. 

I read under the pines of Lake Tahoe, on that Sunday 
afternoon, some pages from a recent English work that 
raises the question of inspiration. Is the Bible the word of 
God, or the words of men? It is neither. It is the word 
of God breathed through the words of men, inextricably 
intertwined with them as the tone of the wind with the 
quality of the tree. We must go to the Bible as to a grove 
of evergreens, not asking for cold, clear truth, but for sa- 
cred influence, for revival to the devout sentiment, for the 



THOMAS STARR KING AT LAKE TAHOE 371 

breath of the Holy Ghost, not as it wanders in pure space, 
but as it sweeps through cedars and pines. 

In my Sunday musing by the shore of our Lake, I raised 
the question, — Who were looking upon the waters of Ta- 
hoe when Jesus walked by the beach of Gennesareth? Did 
men look upon it then? And if so were they above the 
savage level, and could they appreciate its beauty? And 
before the time of Christ, before the date of Adam, how- 
ever far back we may be obliged to place our ancestor, for 
what purpose was this luxuriance of color, this pomp of 
garniture? How few human eyes have yet rested upon it 
in calmness, to drink in its loveliness! There are spots 
near the point of the shore where the hotel stands, to which 
not more than a few score intelligent visitors have yet been 
introduced. Such a nook I was taken to by a cultivated 
friend. We sailed ten miles on the water to the mouth of 
a mountain stream that pours foaming into its green ex- 
panse. We left the boat, followed this stream by its down- 
ward leaps through uninvaded nature for more than a mile, 
and found that it flows from a smaller lake, not more than 
three miles in circuit, which lies directly at the base of two 
tremendous peaks of the Sierra, white with immense and 
perpetual snow-fields. The same ring of vivid green, the 
same center of soft deep blue, was visible in this smaller 
mountain bowl, and it is fed by a glorious cataract, sup- 
ported by those snow-fields, which pours down in thunder- 
ing foam, at one point, in a leap of a hundred feet to die 
in that brilliant color, guarded by those cold, dumb crags. 

Never since the creation has a particle of that water 
turned a wheel, or fed a fountain for human thirst, or 
served any form of mortal use. Perhaps the eyes of not a 
hundred intelligent spirits on the earth have yet looked upon 
that scene. Has there been any waste of its wild and lonely 
beauty? Has Tahoe been wasted because so few appre- 
ciative souls have studied and enjoyed it? If not a human 
glance had yet fallen upon it, would its charms of color and 
surroundings be wasted charms? 

Where we discern beauty and yet seclusion, loveliness and 
yet no human use, we can follow up the created charm to 



372 APPENDIX 

the mind of the Creator, and think of it as realizing a con- 
ception or a dream by him. He delights in his works. To 
the bounds of space their glory is present as one vision to his 
eye. And it is our sovereign privilege that we are called 
to the possibility of sympathy with his joy. The universe 
is the home of God. He has lined its walls with beauty. 
He has invited us into his palace. He offers to us the 
glory of sympathy with his mind. By love of nature, by 
joy in the communion with its beauty, by growing insight 
into the wonders of color, form, and purpose, we enter into 
fellowship with the Creative art. We go into harmony 
with God. By dullness of eye and deadness of heart to 
natural beauty, we keep away from sympathy with God, 
who is the fountain of loveliness as well as the fountain of 
love. But the inmost harmony with the Infinite we find 
only through love, and the reception of his love. Then we 
are prepared to see the world aright, to find the deepest joy 
in its pure beauty, and to wait for the hour of translation 
to the glories of the interior and deeper world. 



CHAPTER D 

JOSEPH LECONTE AT LAKE TAHOE 

JOSEPH LeCONTE, from whom LeConte Lake is 
named, the best-beloved professor of the University of 
California, and its most noted geologist, in the year 
1870 started out with a group of students of his geology 
classes, and made a series of Ramblings in the High Sierras. 
These were privately printed in 1875, and from a copy given 
to me many years ago by the distinguished author, I make 
the following extracts on Lake Tahoe: 

August 20, (1870). I am cook to-day. I therefore got 
up at daybreak and prepared breakfast while the rest en- 
joyed their morning snooze. After breakfast we hired a 
sail-boat, partly to fish, but mainly to enjoy a sail on this 
beautiful Lake. 

Oh! the exquisite beauty of this Lake — its clear waters, 
emerald-green, and the deepest ultramarine blue; its pure 
shores, rocky or cleanest gravel, so clean that the chafing of 
the waves does not stain in the least the bright clearness of 
the waters; the high granite mountains, with serried peaks, 
which stand close around its very shore to guard its crystal 
purity, — this Lake, not among, but on, the mountains, lifted 
six thousand feet towards the deep-blue overarching sky, 
whose image it reflects! We tried to fish for trout, but 
partly because the speed of the sail-boat could not be con- 
trolled, and partly because we enjoyed the scene far more 
than the fishing, we were unsuccessful, and soon gave it up. 
We sailed some six or eight miles, and landed in a beautiful 
cove on the Nevada side. Shall we go in swimming? 
Newspapers in San Francisco say there is something peculiar 
in the waters of this high mountain Lake. It is so light, 
they say, that logs of timber sink immediately, and bodies 

373 



374 APPENDIX 

of drowned animals never rise; that it is impossible to swim 
in it ; that, essaying to do so, many good swimmers have been 
drowned. These facts are well attested by newspaper sci- 
entists, and therefore not doubted by newspaper readers. 
Since leaving Oakland, I have been often asked by the 
young men the scientific explanation of so singular a fact. 

1 have uniformly answered, " We will try scientific experi- 
ments when we arrive there." That time had come, " Now 
then, boys," I cried, " for the scientific experiment I prom- 
ised you ! " I immediately plunged in head-foremost and 
struck out boldly. I then threw myself on my back, and 
lay on the surface with my limbs extended and motionless 
for ten minutes, breathing quietly the while. All the good 
swimmers quickly followed. It is as easy to swim and float 
in this as in any other water. Lightness from diminished 
atmospheric pressure? Nonsense! In an almost incom- 
pressible liquid like water, the diminished density produced 
by diminished pressure would be more than counterbal- 
anced by increased density produced by cold. 

After our swim, we again launched our boat, and sailed 
out into the very middle of the Lake. The wind had be- 
come very high, and the waves quite formidable. We 
shipped wave after wave, so that those of us who were sit- 
ting in the bows got drenched. It was very exciting. The 
wind became still higher; several of the party got very sick, 
and two of them cascaded. I was not in the least affected, 
but, on the contrary, enjoyed the sail very much. About 

2 P. M. we concluded it was time to return, and therefore 
tacked about for camp. 

The wind was now dead ahead, and blowing very hard. 
The boat was a very bad sailer, and so were we. We beat 
up against the wind a long time, and made but little head- 
way. Finally, having concluded we would save time and 
patience by doing so, we ran ashore on the beach about a 
mile from camp and towed the boat home. The owner of 
the boat told us that he would not have risked the boat or 
his life in the middle of the Lake on such a day. " Where 
ignorance is bliss," etc. 

After a hearty supper we gathered around the fire, and 
the young men sang in chorus until bedtime. *' Now then, 
boys," cried I, " for a huge camp-fire, for it will be cold to- 



JOSEPH LeCONTE at LAKE TAHOE 375 

night ! " We all scattered in the woods, and every man 
returned with a log, and soon the leaping blaze seemed to 
overtop the pines. We all lay around, with our feet to the 
fire, and soon sank into deep sleep. 

August 21. Sunday at Tahoe! I wish I could spend it 
in perfect quiet. But my underclothes must be changed. 
Cleanliness is a Sunday duty. Some washing is necessary. 
Some of the party went fishing to-day. The rest of us re- 
mained in camp and mended or washed clothes. 

At 12 M. I went out alone, and sat on the shore of the 
Lake, with the waves breaking at my feet. How brightly 
emerald-green the waters near the shore, and how deeply 
and purely blue in the distance! The line of demarcation 
is very distinct, showing that the bottom drops off suddenly. 
How distinct the mountains and cliffs all around the Lake; 
only lightly tinged with blue on the farther side, though 
more than twenty miles distant! 

How greatly is one's sense of beauty affected by associa- 
tion ! Lake Mono is surrounded by much grander and more 
varied mountain scenery than this; its waters are also very 
clear, and it has the advantage of several very picturesque 
islands; but the dead volcanoes, the wastes of volcanic sand 
and ashes covered only by interminable sagebrush, the bit- 
ter, alkaline, dead, slimy waters, in which nothing but 
worms live; the insects and flies which swarm on its sur- 
face, and which are thrown upon its shore in such quantities 
as to infect the air, — all these produce a sense of desola- 
tion and death which is painful; it destroys entirely the 
beauty of the lake itself; it unconsciously mingles with and 
alloys the pure enjoyment of the incomparable mountain 
scenery in its vicinity. On the contrary, the deep-blue, pure 
waters of Lake Tahoe, rivaling in purity and blueness the 
sky itself; its clear, bright emerald shore-waters, breaking 
snow-white on its clean rock and gravel shores; the Lake 
basin, not on a plain, with mountain scenery in the distance, 
but counter-sunk in the mountain's top itself, — these pro- 
duce a never-ceasing and ever-increasing sense of joy, which 
naturally grows into love. There would seem to be no 
beauty except as associated with human life and connected 
with a sense of fitness for human happiness. Natural 
beauty is but the type of spiritual beauty. 



376 APPENDIX 

Enjoyed a very refreshing swim in the Lake this after- 
noon. The water is much less cold than that of Lake 
Tenaya or the Tuolumne River, or even the Nevada River. 

The party which went out fishing returned with a very 
large trout. It was delicious. 

I observe on the Lake ducks, gulls, terns, etc., and about 
it many sandhill cranes — the white species, the clanging 
cry of these sounds pleasant to me by early association. 

August 22. Nothing to do to-day. Would be glad to 
sail on the Lake or fish, but too expensive hiring boats. 
Our funds are nearly exhausted. Would be glad to start 
for home, but one of our party — Pomroy — has gone to 
Carson City, and we must wait for him. 

I went down alone to the Lake, sat down on the shore 
and enjoyed the scene. Nothing to do, my thoughts to-day 
naturally went to the dear ones at home. Oh! how I wish 
they could be here and enjoy with me this lovely Lake! I 
could dream away my life here with those I love. How 
delicious a dream! Of all the places I have yet seen, this 
is the one I could longest enjoy and love the most. Re- 
clining thus in the shade, on the clean white sand, the 
waves rippling at my feet, with thoughts of Lake Tahoe and 
of my loved ones mingling in my mind, I fell into a delicious 
doze. After my doze I returned to camp, to dinner. 

About 5 p. M. took another and last swim in the Lake. 

Pomroy, who went to Carson, returned 7 p. m. After 
supper, again singing in chorus, and then the glorious camp- 
fire. 



CHAPTER E 

JOHN VANCE CHENEY AT LAKE TAHOE 

ONE of America's poets who long lived in Cali- 
fornia, and then, after an honorable and useful 
sojourn as Director of one of the important libra- 
ries of the East, returned to spend the remainder of his days 
— John Vance Cheney — in 1882, made the trip to Lake 
Tahoe by stage from Truckee, and, among other fine pieces 
of description, wrote the following which appeared in 
Lippincott's for August, 1883: 

One more ascent has been made, one more turn rounded, 
and behold, from an open elevation, close upon its shore, 
Lake Tahoe in all its calm beauty bursts suddenly upon the 
sight. Nestled among the snowy summit-peaks of the 
Sierra Nevada, more than six thousand feet above sea-level, 
it lies in placid transparency. The surrounding heights are 
all the more pleasing to the eye because of their lingering 
winter-cover; and as we gaze upon the Lake, unruffled by 
the gentlest breeze, we marvel at the quiet, — almost super- 
natural, — radiancy of the scene. Lakes in other lands may 
present greater beauty of artificial setting, — beauty de- 
pendent largely upon picturesqueness, where vineyards and 
ivied ruins heighten the effect of natural environment, — 
but for nature pure and simple, for chaste beauty and na- 
tive grandeur, one will hesitate before naming the rival of 
Lake Tahoe. This singularly impressive sheet of water, 
one of the highest in the world, gains an indescribable but 
easily-perceived charm by its remoteness, its high, serene, 
crystal isolation. Its lights and shades, its moods and pas- 
sions, are changing, rapid, and free as the way of the wind. 

A true child of nature, it varies ever, from hour to hour 

377 



378 APPENDIX 

enchanting with new and strange fascination. The thou- 
sand voices of the lofty Sierra call to it, and it answers; all 
the colors of the rainbow gather upon it, receiving in their 
turn affectionate recognition. Man has meddled with it 
little more than with the sky; the primeval spell is upon it, 
the hush, the solitude of the old gods. The breath of pow- 
ers invisible, awful, rouse it to the sublimity of untamable 
energy; again, hush it into deepest slumber. Night and day 
it is guarded, seemingly, by wonder-working forces known 
to man only through the uncertain medium of the imagina- 
tion. The traveler who looks upon Lake Tahoe for a few 
hours only learns little of its rich variety. Like all things 
wild and shy, it must be approached slowly and with pa- 
tience. 

But our sketch must not include more than the hasty 
glimpses of a day. The stage conveyed us directly to the 
wharf, which we reached at ten o'clock, having accomplished 
our fourteen mile ride up the valley in about two and a half 
hours. As we boarded the little steamer awaiting us and 
looked over its side into the water below, the immediate 
shock of surprise cannot be well described. Every pebble 
at the bottom showed as distinctly as if held in the open 
hand. We had all seen clear water before, but, as a severe 
but unscholarly sufferer once said of his rheumatism, 
" never such as these." The day being perfect, no breeze 
stirring, and the Lake without a ripple, the gravelly bottom 
continued visible when we had steamed out to a point where 
the water reached a depth of eighty feet. Two gentlemen 
on board who had made a leisurely trip round the world and 
were now on their way home to England, remarked that 
they had seen but one sheet of water (a lake in Japan) of 
anything like equal transparency. It is presumed that they 
had not visited Green Lake, Colorado. 

Our course lay along the California shore, toward its 
southern extremity, the steamer stopping at several points 
for exchange of mail. These stopping places are all summer- 
resorts, where the guests, snugly housed at the base of the 
mountain-range, divide the time between lounging or ram- 
bling under the shadow of the tall pines and angling for the 
famous Tahoe trout in the brightness of the open Lake. 
All looked inviting, but we were not wholly enchanted un- 



JOHN VANCE CHENEY AT LAKE TAHOE 379 

til, gliding past many a snowy peak, we suddenly changed 
course and put into Emerald Bay. This little bay, or rather 
lake in itself, about three miles in length, is the gem of the 
Tahoe scenery. Through its narrow entrance, formed by 
perpendicular cliffs some two thousand feet high, we moved 
on toward an island of rock and a succession of flashing 
waterfalls beyond. 

For a time the dazzling mountain-crests and glistening 
gorges absorbed attention. So high, white, silent! We 
longed to be upon the loftiest one, from the top of which 
can be seen thirteen charm-ing little mountain-lakes, mid- 
air jewels, varying in feature according to the situation. 
Two of these lakes, widely dissimilar in character, are but 
two miles distant from Tallac House, a comfortable resort 
at the base of the noble peak from which it takes its name. 

But not even the crystal summit ridges delighted us as 
did the changing waters in the path of the steamer. Fol- 
lowing immediately upon the transparency preserved to a 
depth of some eighty feet, a blur passed over the surface. 
This changed by imperceptible degrees to a light green. 
The green, again, speedily deepened, shading into a light 
blue; and finally, in deepest water (where the Lake is all but 
fathomless), the color becomes so densely blue that we could 
not believe our eyes. Indigo itself was outdone. Descrip- 
tion fails; the blue deep of Tahoe must be seen to be appre- 
ciated. 

The ride from Glenwood back to Tahoe City was not so 
calm. The Lake was considerably agitated ; less so, how- 
ever, than on the following day, when, as we learned after- 
ward, our little steamer lost its rudder. Owing to the 
gorges in the mountains upon either side, through which 
winds rush unexpectedly, Tahoe has her dangers. She is 
a wild, wa5^ward child, but thoroughly lovable throughout 
all her frowns as well as smiles, equally captivating in her 
moments of unconquerable willfulness as in her seasons of 
perfect submission. Reaching Tahoe City at four o'clock, 
we found the stage standing in readiness, and, with a last, 
hasty look at the Lake, we were soon on our way by the 
banks of the Truckee, back to town. 



CHAPTER F 

THE RESORTS OF LAKE TAHOE 

IN the body of this book I have given full account of 
some of the resorts of the Tahoe region, including 
Deer Park Springs, Tahoe Tavern, Fallen Leaf Lodge, 
Cathedral Park, Glen Alpine Springs, Al-Tahoe, Lakeside, 
Glenbrook and Carnelian Bay. 

But these are by no means all the resorts of the Bay, and 
each year sees additions and changes. Hence I have 
deemed it well briefly to describe those resorts that are in 
operation at the time this volume is issued. 

It should be remembered that each resort issues its own 
descriptive folder, copies of which may be obtained from the 
ticket offices of the Southern Pacific Railway, the Lake Ta- 
hoe Railway and Transportation Company, or the Peck- 
Judah Information Bureau, as well as from its own office. 
All the resorts not already described in their respective 
chapters are reached by steamer on its circuit around the 
Lake, as follows: 

HOMEWOOD 

The first place for the steamer after leaving the Tavern 
is Homewood, a comparatively new resort, but already pop- 
ular and successful, conducted by Mr. and Mrs. A. W. 
Jost. This is six miles from Tahoe City. The hotel was 
built in 19 1 3 and has hot and cold water piped to all rooms. 

In addition there are cottages of two and three rooms, 
which, together with single and double tents, provide for 

380 



THE RESORTS OF LAKE TAHOE 381 

every taste and purse. The tents are protected by flies, have 
solid boarded floors, are well carpeted, and afford the fullest 
opportunity for out-door sleeping. Homewood possesses a 
gently sloping and perfectly safe bathing beach for adults 
and children. It also boasts a unique feature in an open-air 
dancing platform, with old-fashioned music. It owns its 
power-boat for excursions on the Lake, and its fleet of row- 
and fishing-boats. A campfire is lighted nightly during the 
season, and song and story cheer the merry hours along. 

For circulars address A. W. Jost, Homewood, Lake Ta- 
hoe, Calif. 

mckinney's 

Three and a half to four miles beyond Homewood is Mc- 
Kinney's. This is one of the oldest and best-established re- 
sorts on the Lake, having been founded and long conducted 
by that pioneer of Lake Tahoe, J. W. McKinney, as fully 
related elsewhere. It is now under the management of 
Murphy Brothers and Morgan, and is essentially a place 
that is popular with the crowd. The resort was built, as 
are all the older places, to meet ever-increasing needs, the 
main hotel being supplemented by numerous cottages and 
tents, McKinney's has a fine new dancing-hall, dark-room 
for amateur photographers, iron and magnesia springs, fleet 
of fishing- and motor-boats, free fishing-tackle, etc., and dur- 
ing the season its accommodation for two hundred guests is 
more than taxed to the limit. 

For circular address Murphy Brothers and Morgan, Mc- 
Kinney's, Lake Tahoe, Calif. 

MOANA VILLA 

The next steamer stopping-place, about two hundred 
yards from McKinney's is Moana Villa, the comfortable, 
unpretentious and homelike resort conducted by Mr, and 



382 APPENDIX 

Mrs. R. Colwell, who are also the owners of Rubicon 
Springs, reached by daily stage during the summer season, 
nine miles from McKinney's. 

Owning its own ranch in the mountains where milk, 
cream, butter, eggs, poultry and game are plentiful, the table 
at Moana Villa is provided with all the substantial and 
luxuries, cooked and served in home style. 

One great advantage is offered to guests at Moana Villa, 
viz.: they may divide their time between it and Rubicon 
Springs, as both are under the same ownership and man- 
agement. 

The new Scenic Automobile Boulevard passes through the 
700 acres of delightful surroundings which belong to the 
place. The best fishing grounds on Lake Tahoe are close 
by and numerous smaller mountain lakes and streams afford 
excellent fly fishing. Deer, bear, grouse, quail, ducks, geese 
and other game abound in the locality. 

Hunting, fishing, bathing, boating, dancing, launch trips, 
beautiful walks and drives and numerous games give ample 
opportunity for amusement and recreation. The assembly 
hall and office is of logs. Sleeping accommodations in cot- 
tages and tents or out of doors if desired. Water is piped 
from a clear mountain spring, and an equipment of up-to- 
date sanitary plumbing, bath and toilet appliances has been 
lately installed. 

For circular address R. Colwell, Moana Villa, Lake Ta- 
hoe, Calif. 

pomin's 

A little beyond Moana Villa is Pomin's, the latest ac- 
quisition to the resorts of the Lake, having been opened in 
1 9 14. The hotel is an attractive, well-equipped, up-to-date 
structure, located on a knoll 150 feet from the Lake, and is 
surrounded by pines. Enclosed verandas, open fires in lobby 



THE RESORTS OF LAKE TAHOE 383 

and dining-rooms, electric lights, hot and cold water in all 
the rooms, tents and cottages are some of the conveniences 
and luxuries. 

There is an attractive club-house on the Lake Shore. For 
circular address Frank J. Pomin, Pomin's, Lake Tahoe, 
Calif. 

Emerald Bay Camp and Al-Tahoe have both been described 
in their respective chapters. 

TALLAC 

As explained in Chapter XVIII, Tallac House was built 
by E. J. (Lucky) Baldwin. For many years it was the 
principal hotel on the Lake, but what was a fine and su- 
perior hotel 25 years ago did not satisfy the demands of mod- 
ern patrons. Hence some years ago Mr. Baldwin planned to 
erect a new hotel near the site of the old one. Unfortunately 
the work was not much more than begun when he died and 
nothing has been done to it since. 

The hotel is now under the management of a San Francisco 
firm. 

PINE FOREST INN 

Built, as its name implies, in a pine grove of trees, this 
is one of the older resorts of the Lake. It is unique in that 
it keeps open throughout the year. Like the rest of the 
resorts of its class it has hotel and dining-room with cot- 
tages and tents. Under its new management a new casino 
has been built, and every room and cottage, etc., equipped 
with electric lights. Especial attention is given to camp- 
ing-, fishing-, and hunting-parties. It is on the State High- 
way between Placerville and Carson City, Nevada, and 
therefore makes all provision for automobilists. 

For circular address Lawrence & Comstock, Pine Forest 
Inn, Tallac P. O., Calif. 



384 APPENDIX 

CAMP BELL 

Located between Al Tahoe and Bijou is Camp Bell, con- 
ducted by Russell W. Bell. The camp consists of tents and 
an open-air dining-room. 

For circular address Russell W. Bell, 128 Edgewood Ave., 
San Francisco, Calif. 

BIJOU INN 

This is another well-known Inn and Camp at the south- 
eastern end of the Lake. It is on the Lake Shore Drive 
near to the State Highway and close to Freel's and the other 
mountain peaks of this group. The beach in front of Bijou 
is of clean white sand, with a gentle slope, offering excel- 
lent facilities for bathing. 

For circular address W. F. Conolley, Bijou, Lake Tahoe, 
Calif. 

Lakeside Park and Glenwood have each been described in 
their respective chapters. 

BROCKWAYS 

This old-established and popular hot-springs resort is on 
the north end of the Lake, beautifully situated on State-Line 
Point between Crystal and Agate Bays. The hot springs 
and mineral swimming-pool here have a tested quality which 
thousands of guests can testify to, and they are annually pat- 
ronized by a large number. The resort and springs are un- 
der the management of the owner. 

For circular, address F. B. Alverson, Brockways, Lake 
Tahoe, Calif. 

TAHOE VISTA 

On the shores of Agate Bay a new resort was started two 
years ago, known as Tahoe Vista. It has a modern hotel, 
equipped for convenience and comfort. 



THE RESORTS AT LAKE TAHOE 385 

Bathing, boating and fishing in Agate Bay at Tahoe Vista 
is at its best. The white sanded beach is broad and is safe 
to the smallest child, the bay being shallow for a distance 
of five hundred feet from its edge and affording a tempera- 
ture to the water that is more pleasant than to be found at 
any other part of the Lake. 

The fame of Lake Tahoe's trout fishing is world re- 
nowned, and in Agate Bay that sport is superior. One of 
the public fish hatcheries is located near Tahoe Vista, insur- 
ing a constant supply of the most favored varieties of game 
fish. Twenty-five thousand Eastern brook trout were re- 
cently placed in Griff Creek, a lively little stream that dances 
through the glens of Tahoe Vista. 

To those who wish to own their own homes on the Lake 
Tahoe Vista affords excellent opportunities in that lots are 
for sale at moderate rates. A direct automobile road con- 
nects with Truckee, and also with Tahoe Tavern. 

For circular address Manager Hotel, Tahoe Vista, Calif. 

Carnelian Bay and its attractions are fully described in its 
own chapter. 

TAHOE CITY 

This is the starting and the ending point of the steamer 
trip around the Lake. It is a historic place, the first town 
founded on Lake Tahoe, and destined ultimately to come 
into large importance. There is a small hotel, together 
with housekeeping cottages, and free camping facilities. 

For full particulars address Tahoe Development Co., 
Tahoe, Calif. 



INDEX 



Titles of Books are in Italics. 
Book chapters are in small capitals. 
(q)=quoted. 



Agassiz Peak, 79, 140 
Agate Bay, 212, 384. 
Alleghany, 341 
Alpha, 117 
Alpine Spruce, 298 
Alta, 122, 124 

Al Tahoe, 135, 209, 230, 231 
Alverson, F. B., 384 
American Journal of Science 
and Art, 86 
River (see N. & S. Forks), 

342 

Anderson Peak, 109 

Angel, Myron, in 

Angora Range, 84 
Lakes, io2 

Animals and Birds of T. Re- 
gion, 301-313 

Antelope Valley, 78 

Armstrong, Mrs., 224 

Auburn, 122, 125, 126, 129 

Audrian Lake, 137, 138 

Automobile Route, The Wish- 
BONEj 121-142 

Baldwin, E. J., 208 

Bannister, L, H., 231 

Barker's Peak, Pass., etc., 182, 

193, 194 
Basketry Indian, 36, 37 
Bath, 126 
Bear, 311 



Bear Creek, 81, 167, 187, 217 

Lake, 182 

River Divide, 122 

Valley, 119, 127 
Bell, Camp, 384 
Bigelow, R. L. P., 352 
Bigler, Lake Tahoe Named, 58 
Bijou, 135, 209, 384 
Birds and Animals of T. Re- 
gion, 301-313 
Bixby Lake, 181 
Blackwood Creek, 130, 183, 206, 

319 
Bliss and Yerington, 201 
Bloody Canyon Glacier, 98 
Bloomfield, North, 126 
Blue Canyon, 117, 127 
Blue Jays, 149 
Boating, n 
Boca, 113 

Bonpland, Amade, 25, 56 
Bricknell & Kinger, i68 
Brockways, 212, 384 
Brown, Sam, i6i 
Browning, R. (q), 146 
Buck Island Lake, 196, 220 
Burton, 154, 197 
Creek, 154 

California Ditch, 181 
Camino, 140, 142 
Camping, Free, 154 



387 



388 



INDEX 



Camping Out Trips in T. Re- 
gion, 185-198 
Campoodie, Indians, 28 
Carnelian Bay and T. Coun- 
try Club, 154, 212, 262- 
264 
Carson City, 118, 161 
Falls, 134 
Kit, 15 
Pass, 23 
River, 136 
Sink, 136 
Cascade Lake, 89, 91, 95, 99, 
102, 134, 222, 227 
Glacier, 90 
Castle Peak, 81 
Cathedral Peak, 227 

Park, 209 
Cave Rock, 161, 210 
Cedar, Incense, 292 
Celios, 137 

Central Pacific Ry., 122 
Chandler, Miss Katherine, 177, 

215 
Chaparral of T. Region, 285- 

289 
Chase, Smeaton (q), 297 
Cheney, John Vance (q), ii8, 

(q), 3" 
Chipmunk, 147 
Chips Flat, 117 
Church, J. E., Jr., 327 (q), 329, 

(q), 332-337 

"Pap," 119, 16s 
Cisco, 124, 128, 129, 341 
Claraville, 119, 317 
Clement, Ephraim, 208 
Coburn Station (see Truckee), 

124 
Cohn, A., 37 
Cold Stream, 109, no 



Cole, D. W., 353 
Coleman Valley, i8 
Colfax, 117, 122, 125, 126, 129 
Colgate, 342 
Columbia River, 16 
Colwell, R., 130, 195, 219, 382 
Comstock Lode, 136 
Conolley, W. F., 384 
Conroy, Gabriel, 109 
Country Club, Tahoe, 263 
Crags, The, 216 
Creeks of Lake T., 9, 79 
Crystal Bay, 212 
Range, 79, 83 et seq., 138, 140, 
237 



Dalles of Columbia River, i6 
Damascus, 126 
Dat-so-la-le, 36 
Deer Creek, 162 

Park Springs, 81, 119, 165, 
178, 187, 214-217 
Delano, L. P., 265 
Desolation Valley, 79, 83, et seq., 

102, 138, 140, 187 
Devil's Playground, 119, 165 

Pulpit, 119 
De Young, M. H., 197 
Diamond Springs, 143 
Dick, Capt., 224 
Digger Pine, 291 
Donner, 341 

Creek, 113 

George, 106 

Jacob, 106 

Lake, 87, 113, laS, 106-zio 
Glacier, 87 
Road, 121 et seq. 
Downieville, 341 
Dubliss, Mt., 212 



INDEX 



389 



Dutch Flat, 109, 117, 12a, 135, 
126 

Swindle, 124 

Eagle Bird, 117 

Creek, 133, 226 

Falls, 133, 208, 226 

Lake, 133, 208, 223, 225 

Point, 222 
Echo, 137, 142 

Lakes, 138 
Edgewoods, i6i 
Edith Peak, 261 
Edmonds, Mark W., 350 
EI Dorado, 142 

Forest, 341 
Elevations, 125, 129, 142 
Ellis, Jock, 159, 198 

Peak, 159, 178 et seq. 
Emerald Bay, 3, 72, 207, 222 
et seq. 

AND Camp, 208, 222-229 

Freezes, 9, 332 

Glacier, 91, 95, 222 

How Formed, 89, 132 

Island, 223 

Legend of, 44 
Emigrant Gap, 106, 109, 117, 
127, 129, 341 

Road, 109, 121 et seq., 346 
Erosion, Glacial, 98 
Esmeralda Falls, 140 
Essex, 114 

Fallen Leaf Glacier, 89, 93 
Lake, 89, 90, 92, 93, 94, 100, 

102, 240-250 
Lodge, 40, 135, 209, 240 et 
seq. 
Fir, Red, 297 
Shasta, 292 



Fir, White, 297 

Fire, How Indians Got, 50 

Fish, Hatchery, 135 

Fishing in Tahoe Lakes, 266- 

276 
Five Lakes, 165, 176, 177, 187, 
214 

Creek, 176, 177, 183, 193 
Floriston, 114, 344 
Flower Display, 216 
Flowers of Tahoe Region, 216, 

278-284 
Folsom, 142 
Forest, 341 

Conditions in Sierra Nevada 

(q), 291 
Hill Divide, 122, 126, 169 
Rangers, 187 

Tahoe National, 341-352 
Freel's Peak, 135, 209 
Freeport, 123 

Freezing of Lake Tahoe, 9 
Fremont and the Discovery of 
Tahoe, 13-25 
Discovers Pyramid Lake, 19 

Truckee River, 21, in, ii2 
Explorations, 14, 65, 112, 320 
Howitzer and Lake T., 320- 
326 
Fulda, 341 
Fulton, R. L., 114 

Gardnerville, Legend of, 45 
General Creek, 197 

Electric Co., 342 
Genoa Peak, 212 
Geology of Lake Tahoe, 78-81 
Georgetown Deltas, 95, 98 

Divide, 181, 196, 218, 347 

Junction, 139 
Ghirardelli's Chocolate, 184 



390 



INDEX 



Gilmore Lake, 102, 232 

Nathan, 232 
Glacial History of T. Region, 
82-101 

Lake Valley, 86 
Glen Alpine Canyon, 90, 95, loo 

Falls, 232 

Springs, 90, 95, 135, 137, 209, 
232-239 
Glenbrook, 118, 161, 200 et seg. 

210, 255-261 
Gold Run, 117, 122, 125 
Goodyear's Bar, 341 
Granite Chief Peak, 105 
Graniteville, 341 
Grant's Crackers, 184 
Grass Valley, 117, 122, 126 
Grecian Bay, 4, 131, 207 
Greek George, 175 
Grizzly Gulch, 117 

Peak, 78 
Grove, The, 135, 209 

Hale, Fort, 106 

Hangtown, 142, 218 

Harte, Bret, 109 

Hastings, Lansford W., 106 

Hay Press Meadows, 138 

Hazlett, Mr., 168 

Heather Lake, io2 

Hell Hole, 183, 187 et seg., 215 

Little, 194 
Hellman, I., 198 
Heroes of California, 107 
Hickey, Frances A., 225 
Highland Peak, 81 
Historic Tahoe Towns, 199-204 
Hobart Mills, 129 
Holladay, Ben, 224 
Homewood, 178, 206, 380 
Honey Lake, 79, 80 



Hope Valley, 136 
Hopkins, Sarah W., 111 
Horlich's Tablets, &c., 184 
Howitzer, Fremont and Tahoe, 

320-326 
Humboldt River, 24, iii, 136 
Hunsaker Bros., 218 
Hydraulic Mines, 125, 126 

Illinoistown (see Colfax), 122 
Incense Cedar, 292 
Incline, 204, 212 
Independence, 106 
Indestructo Trunk, 186 
Indians of Lake Tahoe, 26-38 

How originated, 48 

Legends of T. Region, 39-55 
Innocents Abroad (q), 56 
Iowa Hill, 122, 126 

Jackson, An Indian, 39 
Jepson, W. L. (q), 292, 294, 

295, 297 
Job's Peak, 135 

Sister Peak, 135 
Jost, A. W., 380 
Juniper, Western, 291 

Kent Ranger Station, 349 
King, Killed, 315 
Thos. Starr at L. Tahoe, 
366-372 
Kingsbury Grade, 160 
King's Canyon, 161 
Klamet Lake, 17 
Knight, Wra. H., 58 (q), 58-61 
Knox, 314 

Knoxville, 119, 167, 314 et seg. 
Kohl, C. F., 181, 205 
Kyburgs, 139, 142 



INDEX 



391 



Lake, Hank Richards', 198 
of the Sky, Why the, 1-12 
of the Woods, 187 
Pyramid (see Pyramid) 
Spaulding, 127, 342 
Tahoe (see Tahoe) 

Origin of, 40 
Valley, 87 
Glacier, 86, 92, 94 
Lakes, Lesser of T. Region, 102- 

105, 198 
Lakeside Park, 135, 210, 251- 

254 
Lassen, Mt, 175 
Last Chance, 341 
Latham, Capt. W. W., 210 
Lavas, 119 

Lawrence & Corastock, 383 
LeConte, John, Physical Stud- 
ies, 63-77, 93. 95, 338 
Joseph and Glacial Studies, 

80-86 et seq. 
AT Tahoe, 373-376 
Lake, io2 
Legends, Indian, of T. Region, 

39-55 
Leiberg, John B. (q), 291, 295 
Lemmon, J. G. (q), 299 
Level of Tahoe, Variations in, 

73 
Lewis River, i6 
Lick, James, 212 
Lily Lake, 232 
Lincoln, Mt., 81, 109 
Lindgren (q), 78, 80, 94 
Lion Peak, i8i 
Lippincott's (q), 118 
Logging, 118, 343 
Lola, Mt., 81 
Lonely Gulch, 131 
Loon Lake, 102 



Los Angeles, n6 
Lover's Leap, 138 
Lucile Lake, 102 
Lumbering, 118, 202 
Lyell, Mt., 100 

McConnell, Mary, 205 
McGlashan, C. F., 108 

Nonette V., 51 
McKinney, 130, 195, 196, 198, 

206, 219, 317, 381 
McKinstry Peak, 193 
Madden, Dick, Creek, 178, 319 
Maggie's Peaks, 133, 205, 223 
Markleeville, 79, 81 
Marlette, Lake, 162, 212 

Peak, 212 

S. H., 162 
Martis Valley, 113 
Mary's Lake, 18 
Marysville, 128 

Buttes, 175 
Meadow Lake Mines, 128 
Meek's Bay, 3, 130, 207 
Mar de Glace, 87 
Meteor, 203 

Michigan Bluff, 117, 126, 169 
Mildred, Mt., 81, 176, 190 
Miller Creek, 197 

Joaquin (q), 109, 117, 138, 
141, i8o 
Mineral Springs, 233 
Mining Excitement, Squaw 

Valley, 119, 314-319 
Moana Villa, 130, 207, 221, 381 
Modjeska Falls, 232 
Mono Indians, 26 

Lake, 78, 79, 96, 97, 98 
Monona Flat, 126 
Monument Peak, 135, 2n 
Moody, Chas. A. (q), 321 



392 



INDEX 



Moraines, 82, loi 
Mountains of Calif, (q), 103 
of T. Region, 79, 81, 84 et 
seq. 
Muir, John, 82, 93, 100, 103, 232, 

319 
Murphy Bros, and Morgan, 381 
Murphy, Virginia Reed, 108 
Myers' Station, 137 

Names, Various of L. Tahoe, 

56-62 
Napoleon's Hat, 206 
Nevada City, 122, 126 

History of, iii 
Neve, 85 
Newcastle, 123 
North Bloomfield, 126 

Fork Am. River, 117, 122 

Observatory, Mt. Rose, 327- 

331 
Point, 212 
Ogden, 116 
Omega, 117 
Overland Monthly (q), 63-77 

Pacific Gas & Electric Co., 342 

House, 139, 140, 142 
Painti Indians, 27 et seq., iii 
Parsons, Miss, 216 
Phillips, 137 
Phipps Creek, 197 

Peak, 223 
Physical Studies of L. Tahoe, 

63-77 
Pine, Digger, 291 

Finger Cove, 293 

Forest Inn, 383 

Jeffrey, 294 

Sugar, 293 



Pine, White, 293 

Yellov?, 294 
Pino Grande (see The Grove), 

141 
Placerville, 142 

Road, 121 et seq., 135, 136 
Pleasant Lake, i8i 
Pluto, Mt, 79, 80, 119 
Pomin, Capt, 317 

Wm., 317 
Pomin's, 130, 207, 382 
Pray, Capt. A. W., 201, 325 
Preuss, Companion of Fremont, 

22, 322 
Price, W. W., 89 

Mrs. W. W., 29, 30 
Prosser Creek, 113 
Puberty Dance, 31 
Public Use of Waters of L. 

Tahoe, in 
Pyramid Lake, 8, 64, 80, 113 

Discovered, 19 

Named, 20 

Peak, 78, 81, 83, 140 

Quaker Hill, 117 

Rail, to Lake Tahoe, 116-120 
Ramsay, Mrs. Jno. L., 233 
Rangers Forest, 348 et seq., 363 

Station, Kent, 349 
Raymond Peak, 81 
Reclamation Service, U. S., 342, 

ZSS et seq., 363 
Red Peak, 193 
Reed, James T,, 106 
Reid, W. T., 205 
Reno, 113, 114, u6, 123 

Water & Electric Co., 181 
Richards', Hank, Lake, 198 
Richardson's Auto Stage, 142 



INDEX 



393 



Richardson, Barton, 233 

Peak, 237. 
Rivers of Tahoe, 9, 79, 113, 206, 

342 

Riverton, 139, 142 

Roads in Tahoe Forest, 346 

Robinson, L. L., 123 

Rock Bound Lakes, 182 

Rose, Mt., Flowers of, 281 et 
seq. 
Observatory, 327-331 

Roughing It (q), 359 et seq. 

Round Mound, 161 
Top, 8 1 

Rowlands, 209 

Rubicon Park, 132 
Peaks, 131, 182, 197, 207 
Point, 4, 91, 96, 131, 207 
River, 182, 187, 218 
Springs, 195, 196, 218-221 
Road, 196, 218 

Sacramento, 116, 121, 122, 129, 
142, 175 

River, 24, 128 

Valley, 127 
Railroad, 123 
Salmon Trout River, 21, m 
Sallie, Princess, 112 
Salter, Nelson I., 225 
San Buenaventura River, i8 
Sand Mtn., 209 
San Francisco, n6 

Joaquin Valley, 116 
Scott Bros., 168 
Seiches on Lake Tahoe, 73 
Sequoia Gigantea, 348 
Shaffer's Mills, 164 
Shakspere Rock, 2n 
Shank's Cove, 190 
Shasta Fir, 292 



Shasta Mtn., 175 
Shingle Springs, 142 
Shooting the Chutes, ii8 
Sierra Valley, 79 
Silva of Calif., 297 
Silver Mtn., 86 

Smith, J. W., on Fremont's 
Diary, \i et seq. 

Flat, 141, 142 
Snow Shoe Thompson, 187 

Valley Peak, 212 
Snyder killed, 107 
Soda Spring, 191 
Southern Pacific Ry., 127 
South Fork, American R., 117, 

121 et seq., 137 
Spaulding, Lake, 127, 342 
Spider Lake, 102, 181 
Sportsman's Hall, 142 
Spruce, Alpine, 298 
Squaw Peak, 105, 165 et seq. 

Valley, 105, 119, 154, 165 et 
seq. 
Mining Excitement, 314- 

319 
Stanford, Gov. (Steamer), 219 
Starved Camp, 109 
State Line House, 210 
Steamer Around L. Tahoe, 

205-213 
Strawberry, 123, 136, 137 
Sugar Loaf, 139 

Pine Point, 88, 93, 207 
Summer Residence, L. Tahoe 

FOR, 338-340 
Summit, 125, 127, 128, 129 

Valley, 109 
Sumpter, Fort, 172 
Sunset Mag., 332 
Susan (Indian), 39 
Susie Lake, 102 



394 



INDEX 



Sutter's Fort, 24 
Swimming at Tahoe, 10 
Swinging Bridges, 120 

Tahoe City, m, 199 et seq., 

341, 385 
Country Club, 263 et seq. 
and S. F. Waterworks, 114 
Tahoe, Lake, and Truckee 
River, 111-115 
Automobile Route, Wish- 
bone, 121-142 
As A Summer Residence, 

338-340 
Birds and Animals of, 301- 

313 

Boating at, ii 

Boulevard, 129 et seq. 

By Steamer Around, 205- 
213 

Camping Out Trips, 185- 
198 

Chaparral of T. Region, 
285-289 

Cheney, J. V., at, 377-379 

Climate of, 7 

Colors of, 2, 71 

Depth of, 3, 65 

Discovery of, 13, 22 

Drowned do not rise at, 69 

Feeders of, 9 

Fishing at, 5, 11, 266-276 

Flowers of, 278-284 

Fremont and the Discov- 
ery OF, 13-25 

Geology of, 6, 78, 82-101 

Glacial History of, 82-101 

How Formed, 78-81 

Hunting at, 7, 297 

Indians of, 26-38 

Indian Legends of, 36-55 



Tahoe, Lake, King, Thos. 
Starr, at, 366-372 
LeConte, Joseph, at, 373- 

376 
LeConte's Physical Studies 

of, 63-77 
Levels, Variations of, 73 
Mark Twain at, 56, 359- 

363 
Mountains of, 6 
Names, 25, 56, 58 
National Forest, 341-352 
Never freezes, 9, 67 
Origin of, 40, 94 
Peculiarities of, 8 
Physical Culture at, 7 
Public Use of Waters of, 

353-358 
Rail to, i 16-120 
Railway and Transp. Co., 

117 
Restfulness of, 8 
Rivers of, 79 
Significance of name, 61 
Size of, I, II 
Swimming in, 10 
Temperature of, 66 
Transparency of, 70 
Trees of, 290-300 
Truckee River and, 8, 21, 

64. 79, 81, 105, 111-115, 

116, 143, 167, 342 
Variations of Level, 73 
Various Names of, 56-62 
Why "Lake of the Sky," 

i-i6 
Winter at, 9, 332-337 
Tavern, hi, 120 et seq., 129, 

143-152, 205 
Towns, Historic, 199-204 
Vista, 212, 384 



INDEX 



395 



Tallac, 30, 86, 135, 137, 142, 383 
House, 89, 121 et seq., 135, 208 
Mt., 84, 89, 90, 92, 133, 134 

Tevis, W. S., 209 

Thompson Peak, 80 
Snow Shoe, 187 

Tinker Knob, 81 

Tlamath Lake (see Klamat), 

17 
Tobogganing, 335 
Todd's Valley, 126 
Towle, 127 

Towns, Historic Tahoe, 199-204 
Trail Trips in T. Region, 153- 
184 

Hell Hole, 188 et seq. 

Rubicon River, 188 et seq. 
Trees of T. Region, 290-300 
Trolling, 267 

Trout, Varieties of, 266 et seq. 
Truckee (Indian), iii 

(Town), 123 et seq., 128, 129, 

337 

Canyon Glacier, 87, 97 

Little River, 113, 342 
Twain, Mark, i, 56 
Twelve Mile Creek, 18 

Van Sickle, 160 
Velma Lakes, 133 
Verdi, 113, 114 



Virginia City, 122, 123, 136, 138 
Von Schmidt, A. W., 114, 166 

Wadsworth, in, 113, 125 
Ward Creek, 130, 206 

Peak, 216 

Valley, 79 
Washoe Indians, 26 et seq., 192 
Water, Public Uses of Tahoe, 

353-358 
Watson Canyon, 106 

Lake, 154 et seq., 162 

Mtn., 106, 150, 154 et seq., 158 

Robt., Dedication, 150 
Webber Lake, 81, 113 
Whisky Creek, 176 
White Pine, 293 
Wigwam Inn, 167 
Winnemucca, in 

Sarah, in 
Wisconsin Hill, 126 
Woods, Lake of the, 187 
Wright, Wm., 324 

Yankee Jim, 125, 126 
Yanks, 208 

Yerington & Bliss, 201 
Yew, 292 
You Bet, 117 
Yuba, 117 
Forest Reserve, 341 



